
Class ^M c^^r r 

Book 1^12, R^ 





&J^, ^yf^-^^' 



SKETCH 



LIFE AND WRITINGS 

OF 

A. B. BROWN, DD.LLD 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN RICHMOND COLLEGE, VIRGINIA. 

edited by 
Dr. and Mrs. WM. E. HATCHEK. 



WITH ARTICLES FROM 

DR. JOHK A. BROADUS, PROF. JOHN HART, DR. H. A. TUPPER, PROF. C. L. COCKE, DR. J. C. 

HTDEN, DR. C. TYREE, PROP. B. PURYEAR, LLD., DR. J. WM. JONES, DR. W. W. LANDRUM, 

DR. WM. R. VAUGHAN, DR. ANDREW BROADUS, DR. C. H. RYLAND, REV. WM. SLATE, 

DR. J. B. TAYLOR, MR. STEBBINS, COL. T. J. EVANS, PROF. H. H. HARRIS, MR. W. 

C. TYREE, DR. WM. E. HATCHER, PROF. G. F. HOLMES, DR. A. E. OWEN. 



BALTIMORE: 
H. M. WHARTON & CO., Publishers, 

Nos. 126 AND 128 W. Baltimore St. 
1886. 









CopYUiaiiTED. 1880, DY II. M. Wharton A Co. 



PEEFAOE. 



The reader will find in the following pages a simple tribute 
from a loving pupil to the memory of a departed teacher. They 
have been prepared with no other motive than to embalm some of 
the fragrant influence, and preserve some of the solid work of an 
eminent Christian and scholar. To those who knew him, one of 
his greatest charms was his deep interest in living questions, and 
his incessant activity on present surroundings. As they look 
back, they most deeply regret that this very habit of mind pre- 
vented the employment of his pen for the instruction of the 
future, and makes his literary remains few and meagre in com- 
parison with the powers of the living man. 

Socrates wrote nothing, yet his influence has been undying and 
universal, because his mantle fell upon the broad shoulders of a 
Plato, who was not a little helped by the unpretending memo- 
rabilia of a fellow-pupil, the practical Xenophon. If this 
memoir shall help to bring out a real successor, its object will 
have been accomplished. 

The volume has grown in the hands of the compiler far beyond 
the dimensions of her original purpose. She undertook to prepare 
a brief memorial for circulation among particular friends. When 
her intention was made known,, many valuable and instructive 
contributions were received, which presented in different lights as 
many striking views of the character and life of Dr. Brown, and 
it has been no easy task to compress this wealth of material into 
reasonable limits. This fact will explain also the somewhat 

iii 



IV PREFACE. 

peculiar structure of the book. For while the papers furnished 
by others toucli the life they portray chiefly at certain points, not 
a few of them take a much wider range. It has seemed best not 
to sacrifice the integrity of these tributes to the demands of chro- 
nological order, as it is observed in the biographical sketch. 
Therefore even in the earlier chapters will be found some mention 
of the incidents and allusions to traits that belong rather to the 
later life. 

Of the sermons and addresses it should be said that Dr. Brown, 
while he made careful preparation, .never allowed his manuscript 
to fetter his utterance, and rarely wrote out for print what he had 
spoken. Many of his best discourses are left incomplete, because 
he safely relied upon the momentum and the excitement of actual 
delivery, and the sympathy of his hearers, to make a stronger 
conclusion and one better adapted to the occasion than he could 
possibly work out in the seclusion of his study. Such of them 
have been selected as were in the best condition for the printers, 
and have been given just as he left them. 

It remains for me to say that the engagement with the Publishers 

allowed less than three months for the preparation of the volume, 

and even this short time has been seriously curtailed by sickness 

in the household over which the compiler presides. It would 

have been my duty and pleasure to render some assistance, but a 

term of sickness and the consequent accumulation of other work, 

have left me opportunity to do no more than assist in selecting 

and editing the material and prei)aring some portions of the later 

chapters. 

Wm. E. Hatcher. 



INTEODUOTOET. 



The distinguishing glory of man is freedom. He possesses 
the power of choice. He is not a puppet, performing in fixed 
grooves, under the power of an extraneous force. He is 
endowed with those gifts which render it possible for him 
to mould his own character and shape his own destiny. This 
quality constitutes the lordly element in his being. And it 
is not irreverent to say, that God treats it with the most 
tender respect. In all of His transactions with men He never 
ignores their wills. He imposes no duty which they cannot 
choose to perform, and accepts no service unwillingly given. 

When in His authority God prescribes a law, it is exactly 
fitted to human freedom. If we turn to His word, we find 
that He delights to teach His creatures by example. He 
throws out before them, men of like passions with themselves, 
whose lives are illuminated with gleams of His own perfec- 
tions. When He would set before the world a new edition 
of the Law, He embodied it in the life of a person, the Son 
of God. 

Nothing is so ennobling as the contemplation of lofty 
character. Its subtle influence radiates in every possible 
direction: but he who would receive most of its self-perpet- 
uating spirit, must put himself in contact with it. 

Common origin, common interests and a common end, serve 

v 



VI INTRODUCTORY. 

to unite mankind in a brotherhood. The eternal bands arc 
around all, binding them closer and closer together. There 
was a period in the world's history, long after the time that 
humanity meant a pair, when the parts were diverse and 
far removed from each other. But the quickening steps of 
civilization and religion have made them touch elbows in this 
great march of development. 

Once the thoughts of great men were entombed in languages 
unknown to the rest of mankind, like the buried glories of a 
Pompeii — now the bursts of eloquence of an inspired speaker 
may flash athwart continents in a day — even his very voice 
may be transmitted to remote sections, if not preserved for 
future hearei*s. The connection between one nation and 
another, between one man and another, is most intimate. Not 
more so, is the vital relation in the material body by which 
one part is brought in contact with all its powers, by means 
of the delicate tracery of nervous organisms. One part or 
another is important in the universal like the material body, 
in proportion as it influences the whole. 

It is only the one who outstrips the others, the advance 
guard, who is worthy the attention of the student of nature 
and art. 

Some there are like diamonds in the rough who, on account 
of certain adverse surroundings, were never set in the kingly 
diadems that they might have adorned ; and to history it 
becomes a pleasing task to catch up the spirit of their lives, 
and the productions of their genius, to crystallize them into 
enduring form. 



INTRODUCTORY. Vli 

History has been often called " Pliilosopby teaching by 
example." Every reader who at all comprehended the genius 
of the subject of this memoir, will see at once, his likeness 
in the definition. Whether he be regarded as the man with 
his splendid native endowments ; or the man with his great 
acquisitions gained by close research, and acute analytical 
processes, he is in every sense a philosopher and a Christian 
philosopher as well; for Bacon says "the roads to religion 
and true philosophy are identical ; as the noblest powers of 
man have to be employed in both." 

In his character he stands forth a man nobly planned, and 
nobly develoj^ed — and as such, he was in some sense the 
resultant of the various forces that were brought to bear on 
him — and a factor as well in the mighty temple that time 
erects; just as every effect is the result of two or more 
causes, and is itself one of the causes of other effects. 

By what processes did he reach his elevation ? What were 
the influences he put in motion? What did he do for the 
benefit of mankind? These are pertinent questions, which 
w^ill be discussed in the following pages. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Pkeface, iii 

Introductory, v 

CHAPTER I. 
Those That Went Before, 9 

CHAPTER II. 
His Childhood Home, 15 

CHAPTER III. 
The Mountain Boy, 21 

CHAPTER IV. 
Entering the Harvest, 55 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

PAGK. 

The Hampton Pastor, 74 

CHAPTER VI. 
His Work in Charlottesville, 107 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Days of War, 155 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Country Pastor, 180 

CHAPTER IX. 
The College Professor, 227 

CHAPTER X. 
His Death, 262 

His Character, 291 



LIFE AE"D WHITINGS 



OF 



A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THOSE THAT WENT BEFORE. 

GO deeply rooted in the human mind is the con- 
^ viction that talent is transmitted, that the 
presence of it in an individual is at once the signal 
for a search for its origin, in his ancestry. 

Abram Burwell Brown was the eldest son of 
Martin Brown and Belinda Seay. 

Of the genealogy of his father, little is known. 
Sufficient information has been gotten, however, to 
establish the fact that, for generations, the Browns 
have been noted for their intellectual ability and 
love of learning. 

The grandfather, Jeremiah Brown, was a Revo- 
lutionary soldier, of English descent ; was born in 
Stafford, lived in Culpeper and Fauquier Counties, 
till the beginning of this century, when he moved 



10 LIFE OF A. B. BROWX, DD. LLD. 

to Amherst, where he resided till his death, in 
1846, having attained to the age of ninety years. 
He was twice married. His first wife was named 
Jane Kirk ; and their children were named Willis, 
Thomas Fielding, Elizabeth, Joseph and Martin, 
the fiither of A. B. Brown. 

Jeremiah Brown, and all of his children w^ere 
apt and eager to learn, and distinguished for their 
retentive memories. Elizabeth won for herself the 
soubriquet of Macaulay, on account of her wonder- 
ful memory, and power of delineating character. 
Joseph was a gentleman of scholarly habits — 
devoted to reading and a charming conversa- 
tionalist. He was a popular citizen and an earnest 
Baptist. Martin was perhaps the most gifted of 
this family. 

On the maternal side, A. B. Brown was de- 
scended from tlie Huguenots. His great-great- 
grandfather, Abram Seay, for whom he was named, 
was born in France, went to England to escape 
the persecution of the Catholics, and afterwards 
emigrated to Virginia. 

In order to trace, with minuteness, the influ- 
ences of heredity, it seems fitting that we look 
for a moment, at the religious and political con- 
dition of the country, from which this ancestor 
sprang. 



THOSE THAT WENT BEFORE. 11 

The middle of the sixteenth century witnessed 
the beginning of religious toleration in Europe. 
Prior to this, barring the revolt of Henry YIII., 
the supremacy of the Pope had been absolute 
and unlimited. But the clarion notes of Luther 
had rung throughout Germany, and echoed 
through the other countries, till converts to 
the reform faith were numbered, from "Finland 
to the Alps, and Iceland to the Pyrenees." The 
long-suppressed desire for freedom of conscience 
had voiced itself, in the valiant defenders of the 
new faith, till the whole country threatened to 
be Protestant. 

The Pope, realizing the decay of his power, 
called on the crowned heads, to suppress the 
religious reformers. Everywhere was confusion, 
disorder, and often violence. Under the wise 
rulings of Elizabeth, in England, the opposing 
parties were kept in abeyance, and for a long 
while afterwards it was a safe asylum for Pro- 
testant exiles. In France, where Calvin had 
been busy propagating the new doctrines, great 
numbers became converts, among them, many of 
the nobility. Here was the scene of the direst 
conflicts. Religious controversy culminated in 
civil war — the Protestants being the Huguenots, 
and the Catholics the Guises. Here the wicked 



12 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Catharine de Medicis — the queen-mother, the 
mention of whose name sullies the pen that re- 
cords it, as it blanches the cheek of modern 
womanhood — resolved to exterminate the Protes- 
tants at one blow, and having summoned them to 
Paris to attend a wedding feast, had the tocsin 
sounded, that was the signal for the general mas- 
sacre, which sent seventy thousand souls into 
eternity in one night; and all this under the 
guise of religion. 

Not very long after, there went out from France 
to Protestant England a young man, Abram Seay, 
a Huguenot, a scion of nobility, of culture and 
means. 

Notwithstanding the general upheaval caused 
by the Reformation, literature had steadily ad- 
vanced in England, and to come within her bor- 
ders was to feel her quickening touch. 

After the turbulent passions of the Protestants 
and Catholics subsided, differences as to mode of 
worshij) sprung up between the Protestants them- 
selves, which led to the formation of the jDarty 
called Puritans, or those who desired to be purer 
and simpler. Rather than submit to forced regu- 
lations of worship against their convictions, they 
set out on the high seas, for a home in the great 
West, where they might enjoy perfect liberty of 
conscience. 



THOSE THAT WENT BEFOEE. 13 

Abram Seay and his wife, formerly a Miss Wil- 
son, with their three sons, Abram, Isaac and 
Jacob, with thousands of others who during those 
years flocked to these shores, sailed for the land 
named in honor of the Virgin Queen. A trust- 
worthy tradition informs us that this high-spirited 
old Huguenot, out of his ample means, purchased 
homes for his three sons near the James River. 
The home of Abram, the eldest of the sons, was 
in Nelson County, Virginia, and was known as 
the Cove. He married a Miss Loving. 

Joseph Seay, a grandson of Abram, the Hu- 
guenot, owned a handsome property on the James, 
near Tye River. He married a Miss Annie Harvey 
— an English lady who, so far as can be known, 
was the first Baptist in the large circle of the Seay 
family. It is worth while here to say that her 
Baptist convictions were very strong, and she 
sought to win the family to their adoption. While 
unsuccessful in making Baptists of her own chil- 
dren, she has a reward for her fidelity, in the 
magnificent Baptist character of her grandchil- 
dren. One of the daughters of Joseph Seay, was 
Belinda. She was the mother of A. B. Brown, 
and he honored her memory, by bestowing the 
same name on his eldest daughter. 

Abram Seay, having brought with him, to this 



14 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

country, the native refinements in which he had 
been reared, and the intellectual quickening he 
received in England, instilled in his posterity 
high aims and aspirations. 

The discerning reader, will not fail to perceive 
in the descendant of this Frenchman, as his 
characteristics will be delineated, the high-strung, 
nervous temperament, the hot blood, the high 
gentlemanly instincts peculiar to the real French 
nobleman. 

The descendants of Abram Seay, are scattered 
through the counties of Nelson, Amherst and 
Fluvanna, and form a part of the honored yeo- 
manry of the land — respected for their thrift, 
intelligence and piety. 

Joseph Seay, the grandfather of A. B. Brown, 
was a man of talents and culture. He was a 
teacher, the most of his life. He educated his 
children and many of his grandchildren. He and 
his wife outlived several of their children, and 
took two sets of grandchildren, to train and to 
educate. He fought in the War of 1812, and died 
in 1845, having reached the age of seventy-eight 
years. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 1 5 



CHAPTER II. 

HIS CHILDHOOD HOME. 

rpHE eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains 
-*- in Virginia, embracing the counties of Nelson, 
Amherst and Bedford, has been regarded for gene- 
rations, as the most fertile spot for the birth of 
Baptist preachers. The simple habits, honest 
purposes and pure lives of the inhabitants, to- 
gether with the inspiration that comes from the 
beholding of the sublime in nature, conspire to 
produce this result. The belief that the grandeur 
of natural phenomena tends to the elevation and 
expansion of the powers of man, is not simply a 
poetic idea, but an established truth. A soul 
brought into habitual communion with God in 
nature — who has the spiritual discernment to 
interpret Him — will be, in the language of 

another, 

^^ Haunted forever by the Divine mind,'^ 

and so cannot be utterly debased in life. 

In a farm-house on the mountain-side, near a 
dashing stream called Allen's Creek, the subject of 
this memoir was born. He was the eldest of a 



16 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

family of five children. A look within the walls 
of that quiet country home reveals to us first the 
father, Martin Brow^n, and his wife, Belinda, n^e 
Seay, and five children, viz., Abram, Joseph, 
James, Margaret and Thomas. 

The father, Martin Brown, w^as a man of limited 
education, but of good talents, ambitious spirit and 
pure life. He was specially gifted in lively' wit 
and brilliant repartee. His devotion to his chil- 
dren was very marked, and he struggled hard, in 
the face of untoward circumstances, to elevate 
them. He was a great lover of reading, and suc- 
ceeded in exciting in his children a love of study 
that made all of them attain to some degree of 
intellectual excellence. 

In one of his addresses Dr. Brown said, " My 
father loved learning and he loved me, and so he 
made many sacrifices to give me educational ad- 
vantages." The schools accessible were few and 
poor. This country, so young and untried, had not 
long laid aside its swaddling clothes. The early 
colonists, having secured their release from Eng- 
lish rule, had begun to build up an independency 
worthy of their best endeavors ; but the process 
was slow. Material interests had to precede in- 
tellectual, forests had to be felled, houses built 
and mechanical interests encouraged, before much 



HIS CHILDHOOD HOME. 17 

impetus could be given to literary pursuits. By 
many, a common English education was all that 
was deemed necessary for one who did not expect 
to teach, and so high intellectual advancement 
was exceptional. 

In the quiet country home, there were no child's 
books ; only the weekly newspapers, which were 
like the Acta Diurna of earlier days. It is said 
that Abram, at a very early age, loved to read the 
newspapers and the political addresses of the day. 
His reading was better suited to mature minds. 
He was often sent for, to read the papers to the 
neighboring farmers. He once said to a friend 
that in his boyhood, he got a better idea of the 
condition of the country by reading the advertise- 
ments in the papers, than in any other way — that 
from them, he learned both the demands and the 
supplies of the people. With such a thirst for 
knowledge as he possessed, it was an easy matter 
to extract it from surroundings. 

Although his mother died when he was so 
young, yet she lived long enough to make an 
ineffaceable impression on her first-born. It is 
said that the knowledge that a child gains in the 
first seven or eight years of his life is far in excess 
of that gained in all the after-life. Cowley, in 
speaking of the influences of early life on the 



18 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

heart and mind of the child, says, " It is like 
carving your name on a young tree, which widens 
as the tree grows." The mother is the first 
teacher, and if she does well her duty, there is no 
power on earth that can blot out the memory of 
it. The mother of A. B. Brow^n w^as said to be 
one of the most beautiful women of her day. 
She w^as also intelligent and pious. All through 
life he could seldom speak of her without tears. 
He ever reverenced her memory and spoke of her 
with peculiar pleasure. The influence of a good 
and wise mother is illimitable. Some learned 
man has described a good mother as nature's clief- 
cToeavre. John Randolph, of Roanoke, said he 
would have been an atheist but for the remem- 
brance of his mother's teaching him the Lord's 
Prayer. What might not Byron have been, wath 
his splendid powers under the tutelage of a good 
and wise mother? Could the son of a woman 
who died in a fit of anger at an upholsterer's bill 
do otherwise than give loose rein to passions as 
she did. 

The following sketch was found among Dr. 
Brown's papers : 

" I was born in Amherst County, Virginia, on October 
20th, 1821. My father, quite poor at tlie time of my 



HIS CHILDHOOD HOME. 19 

birth, slowly accumulated property, most of which, how- 
ever, he lost by reverses before the education of his family 
was completed. He was sober and industrious, of sparkling 
wit, eminently genial and companionable, and more self- 
sacrificingly devoted to the preferment of his children than 
any other man I ever knew. My mother was thrifty and of 
that dexterity and skill in household arts in which the par- 
tiality of her children could discover the marks of genius. 
Seated by her side, I learned to count and learned my 
letters.'' 

The death of his mother, occurring when he 
was eleven years old, caused a breaking up, of the 
once happy but short-lived home circle. All the 
children, except Abram, went to live at the home 
of their grandfather, Joseph Seay, and the mem- 
bers of that household were never united again 
under the paternal roof. The grandfather Seay, 
who was a teacher of considerable ability, taught 
the little ones who had come into his home, while 
Abram staid at the old place, the sole companion 
of his father, and went to school to the best 
teachers in the neighborhood. Without the com- 
panionship of brothers and sister in his home life, 
he had recourse to reading works of high order of 
merit, that he found on the shelves of the family 
library. His father, discerning in him the marks 
of genius, and being so ambitious for him to im- 



20 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

prove his talents, kept him at school till he was 
17 years of age, when he began to teach. It is 
believed that he never did any work on the farm. 
His physical constitution, in consequence of his 
want of exercise in the open air, did not develop 
and keep pace with his mental. 

The father, so devoted to learning, and with no 
mean qualifications himself, kept his children con- 
stantly at school. All of them were gifted, and 
inherited or imbibed the father's love of books. 
James Brown, who was thought by some to have 
equal talent with Abram, and might have been 
equally distinguished if he had had the same tastes, 
was a physician and a county treasurer in Bed- 
ford. A few years ago he moved West, and died 
soon after reaching his new home, with disease of 
the lungs. Margaret, the only sister, died at the 
age of 18 years. Joseph distinguished himself as 
a student at the University of Virginia, and 
Thomas, who lives now near the old home, is a 
farmer of decided literary taste and ability. It 
is said that in after-life, when the brothers 
would visit each other, they would spend the time 
together discussing books and theses to the ex- 
clusion of common-place topics. It would be 
difficult to find a family with as much literary 
taste. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 21 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 

TN the old mountain home^ young Brown had no 
sister or mother to care for him. He felt sadly 
the need of them. An aunt kindly looked after 
his wearing apparel, and kept it in order for him. 
He used to say that he was very happy when he 
begun to make money for himself, so that he could 
buy his own clothes; that those made for him 
were always too large — made " so that he could 
grow to them ; " and, as he would tell of it, and 
laugh in his characteristic way, he would continue 
the story, saying, " but I never grew to them." 
His separation from society gave him the oppor- 
tunity for fostering those habits of reflection, which 
drew out to their highest, the powers of his soul. 
With the majestic old mountains around him, fill- 
ing his soul with emotions of grandeur and with 
love for the Maker, his spirit, quickened and ele- 
vated, reveled in mental and spiritual delights. 

He next tells of his teachers : 

" In my eighth year I was sent to school. Most of the 
teachers of my boyhood and youth were intelhgent and 



22 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

conscientious, but immature young men. Yet I was much 
more indebted to these than to one or two of greater expe- 
rien(;e. James B. Davidson, then himself a mere tyro, 
afterwards a very successful teacher in Southwest Virginia, 
so taught me spelling and reading in one year that any 
improvement since made has been without conscious effort. 
The next year he imbedded Murray's grammar in my 
memory for future uses. Edwin T. Ellett, in teaching me 
Latin in my twelfth year, incidentally utilized my previous 
acquirements in English, and made me as good a gramma- 
rian as I ever became till I was introduced, in middle life, 
to the more rational and logical methods of Kiihner, 
Greene and Mulligan. This able and efficient teacher, in 
two years, so thoroughly grounded me in the Latin forms 
and syntax, and so carefully trained me in translation, that 
subsequent improvement was the easy result of continued 
practice and increasing mental development." 

It is said by his family that he never studied 
arithmetic at school more than a few months — 
having ciphered through Pike's Arithmetic when 
he was ten years old. Being foremost in all his 
classes at school, he was frequently called on by 
the boys to w^ork their examples for them. If he 
declined, they would taunt him by saying : '' It is 
just because you don't know how; you can't do 
it." And at that he would yield to their wishes, 
and solve their examples for them, lest he might 
be accused of incapacity. He was a sort of 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 23 

assistant teacher. He contracted a fondness for 
teaching then, that grew with his years. He 
always managed to have some one near to instruct. 
He frequently made allusions to the fact quoted 
above, that he committed to memory what he 
didn't understand. In questioning the wisdom of 
such teaching, he would say, " but when after- 
wards I became old enough to comprehend the 
meaning of the text, it was right there in my mind 
for use." 

The teacher that he makes mention of, that 
taught him the languages, was a Frenchman, 
named Cruiseau, probably a connection of the 
family. We know that he taught at different 
times in Nelson and Amherst, and that Mr. Brown 
followed him up, studying under him while he 
taught. He was regarded as a fine linguist, and a 
better teacher than one could usually find in the 
rural districts. To this rudimentary knowledge of 
the languages of Latin, French and Greek, that he 
gained early in life, he was constantly adding. It 
has been said that a mind that has early been 
trained in the forms of the Latin and Greek evi- 
dences it ever afterwards in the complexion of its 
productions. He was no advocate for specialists. 
He pleaded for broad and deep foundations and 
massive structures above. 



24 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Below is a continuation of the autobiographical 
sketch : 

^' Having added to my acquirements a little Greek, 
rather more French, a larger complement of geometry and 
a meagre scantling of other mathematics, I commenced 
teaching school early in my 18th year. Up to this time I 
had not known what it was to be a student ; but, ambi- 
tious to show myself competent to what I had undertaken, 
subjected my mind to intense effort. And it was better 
for me, perhaps, than for my pupils, that some of them 
were trying to learn Latin, Greek and French. Unfor- 
tunately, I divided my leisure hours between preparation 
for my classes and the study of law, — a study which was 
not indeed wholly thrown away, but a study for which I 
was poorly prepared, and which was little related to my 
future pursuits.^' 

An incident is related by Rev. Mr. Wm. Tyree, 
who obtained it from his father, . the intimate 
friend of Dr. Brown, that illustrates his mental 
ability at this period of his life. He says, — 

" When a mere boy he and a young companion (Mr. Wm. 
Tyree) walked to Lynchburgh to attend a meeting of the 
General Association. The two youths, who had not often 
been beyond the limits of their own county, were of course 
anxious to see all that could be seen. Walking down the 
street one evening, as they passed the Catholic Church, 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 25 

the door was open and in they walked. The priest 
happened to be in the church at the time preparing for 
some service. After looking around, Mr. Brown's eye 
was attracted to a picture under which there was a 
historical quotation. In a moment the thorough know- 
ledge of history, which he acquired from various sources, 
enabled him, as he thought, to detect error in the quota- 
tion; so, una wed by the sanctified air of the priest, he 
walked up to him, and said the statement was false. 
The priest, judging him by his personal appearance, at 
first seemed to think him impertinent, as well as ignorant, 
to presume to question the correctness of such authority, 
even in the presence of his majesty; but he soon found 
that the lad, awkward and ignorant as he supposed, was 
more than his equal, not only in historical information, 
but in logic as well, and soon left him and resumed his 
official duties.'^ 

Those who were intimately associated with him 
at this period of his life, say that he gave evidence 
of great mental power. Yery modestly, he says of 
himself that he had not learned to study till he 
began to teach. He may not have been engaged 
in such close analytical and synthetical processes 
as he afterwards subjected himself to, in studying 
a subject, but he had read widely, and on deep 
and abstruse themes, such as a boy of his age 
would have passed by. At that time he read and 
committed to memory much of the poetry of 



26 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

standard authors. He hardly knew the time 
when he did not know " The Lady of the Lake," 
some verses of which, commencing, 

'^ I Httle thought when first thy rein 
I slacked upon the banks of Seine, 
That highland eagle e'er should feed 
On thy fleet limbs, my matchless steed. 
Wo' worth tlie chase, wo' worth the day 
That cost thy life, my gallant gray," 

he loved frequently to repeat to his family around 
the hearth-stone. 

He writes of his teaching, and of his hard 
studying w^iile a mere boy, and of his reading 
law. He did not write of his spiritual condition 
at this time, and perhaps it were as well to omit 
any account of it ; but for the sake of truth and 
honesty, and without any real damage to char- 
acter, it must be recorded that he came near being 
an atheist. This is not remarkable when we con- 
sider that honest doubt is the vestibule to the 
house of faith ; that a state of uncertainty is often 
the condition and sign of investigation. One has 
often to look around to find the true path. He 
doubted for a while, but it was only the dark- 
ness before the dawning of the day-star of 
Hope. When it did appear, it Avas in all its 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 27 

effulgence — a real, glowing sun, and it never 
declined. What he gained by investigation, he 
held to as real truth. 

He made a profession of religion while boarding 
in an Episcopal family, where he taught school. 
He joined their church, and took deacon's orders 
with a view to the ministry. His father and 
mother were both Methodists. He said he felt it 
to be his duty before preaching the peculiar doc- 
trines of the church to examine into the scriptural- 
ness of them, and the result was he became a 
Baptist. If any book beside the Bible helped him 
to a change of faith, it was Dr. Carson's work on 
Baptism. He entertained such a high opinion of 
the work and man, that afterwards he named his 
first-born in honor of him. During the investiga- 
tion of the subject, he had frequent interviews with 
Dr. Rice, a minister whom he loved and revered 
all through life, and who took a pleasing part in 
his ordination. It was a sad coincidence that Dr. 
Rice preceded him to the grave by only a few 
months, and at the time his last sickness com- 
menced he was planning a biographical sketch of 
his old pastor. 

It has not been easy to determine exactly at 
what point in his life Mr. Brown changed his 
church relationship. I incline to the opinion that 



28 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

it occurred alter his return Ironi Washington Col- 
lege. Concerning his connection with that insti- 
tution, I find this graphic and comprehensive 
statement in his papers, — 

" I entered Washington College at an advanced stage of 
the session of 1840 and 1841, prosecuted with great inten- 
sity Greek and INIathematics, and felt with perhaps equal 
benefit the quickening contact of ingenuous and gifted 
young minds/^ 

And this closes the only sketch of his life writ- 
ten by himself that can be found. 

An honored friend and fellow-countyman, (Dr. 
C. Tyree), one who ranks among the foremost of 
Virginia's distinguished mmisters, furnishes us the 
following, which, beginning at this period of his 
life, gives some interesting facts : 

"In the year 1840 the wa^iter of this sketch first 
became acquainted with A. B. Brown, while assist- 
ing Dr. Rice in a series of meetings at Mt. Moriah. 
Although raised in an adjoining neighborhood, it 
was not till these meetings, that this w^riter became 
acquainted wdtli him. While teaching school in 
the family of William M. Waller, a prominent and 
wealthy gentleman of Amherst, he had joined the 
Episcopal Church ; at the same time he was an 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 29 

attendant on the ministry of Dr. S. R. Rice, at 
Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. In this church there 
was a large number of intelligent men; among 
these were such as John W. Broaddus, Benjamin 
Taliaferro, Dr. Gibson and others. These Baptists 
were more the social and religious companions of 
young Brown, than the members of his own church, 
for the latter were few and far between. Hence, 
whether from intercourse with these intelligent 
and kind Baptists and their pastor. Dr. Rice, or 
from his own independent investigations, we know 
not — likely from both — Mr. Brown became a 
Baptist, and was, to the joy of the Baptist and 
disappointment of his Episcopal friends, baptized 
into the fellowship of Mt. Moriah Church by Dr. 
Rice. 

" He was then regarded as one of the brightest 
and best young men in his county ; hence his 
accession to the Baptists was considered a triumph. 
In after years. Brother Brown gave interesting 
accounts of the argument that the Episcopal 
minister, Rev. Mr. Caldwell, would present to him 
for the scripturalness of infant baptism, and for 
sprinkling as a mode of baptism ; and how he and 
the clear-headed Rice would refute these specious 
pleas for these human innovations. It was, we 
think, after this noble young man became a Bap- 



30 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

tist, that he became a student at the University of 
Virginia. We do not know how long he remained 
in our great State college, nor what precise science 
he studied while there, but we do know that it 
was in this noble institution he mainly laid the 
foundation for his future eminence as a scholar, 
educator and preacher. It was here, more than 
elsewhere, he acquired his habit of strong, unique 
thinking. 

" It was about this time, the Mt. Moriah Church 
licensed him to preach, after which he frequently 
preached to his own, and other surrounding Bap- 
tist Churches. His first pulpit efforts gave no 
very promising warrant of the eminence, to which 
he attained, as a preacher. His person was un- 
attractive, his gestures awkward and inappro- 
priate, his voice abrupt and inharmonious and his 
enunciation indistinct. The first acknowledged 
proof of his strength of mind, was an address on 
Foreign Missions, made before the church of which 
he was a member, and the more discerning of his 
brethren saw in his first sermons, intimations of 
his future greatness. 

" In the estimation of all, his Christian character 
was of a high order. He was singularly free 
from vanity and over self-valuation. Other young 
preachers of less learning and intellect, arose at 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 31 

once to distinction, by the helpful adjuncts of 
good voices, pleasing manners, and self-possession. 
Abram Brown gradually attained to the highest 
distinction as a preacher, in the absence of these 
and other extraneous helps. 

"His brilliant success, without so many adjunc- 
tive helps, proves that he possessed a :farely great 
mind and a noble heart ; and both were greatly 
enlarged by habits of study and habits of devo- 
tion. 

" God never vouchsafes to any of his preachers 
all of the elements of preaching power. Robert 
Hall and George Whitefield were not powerful 
preachers in all respects. There are some regards 
in which even Spurgeon is not a model. 

" He gave A. B. Brown but few constituents of 
the great preacher, but these few He gave him in 
such munificent measures as to make him, of his 
class, the peer of any preacher of his own, or any 
denomination in his State. His power lay in the 
quickness, richness and originality of his thoughts, 
the gushing depths of his emotions, with the rare 
facility of clothing his ideas in the fewest and best 
chosen words. 

"He was, however, only the greatest of a certain 
class of preachers. It were not best for the 
world's religious betterment, that all or most 



32 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

preachers should be great after Dr. Brown's type. 
The sermons, that gave him his high character 
were too intellectual, to convert and edify the 
common hearer. 

"He could, however, preach plain and practical 
sermons. We recall one he preached at Mount 
Moriah, during a protracted meeting, from the 
text ' Seek first the Kingdom of God and his 
righteousness,' etc., that was simple and thrilling 
to all ; but on the day before preached from the 
text, ' Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ,' etc., a sermon grandly mysterious. It 
reminded one of the sun, behind a dark cloud, 
fringing its edges with golden light ; but did not 
break out in full-orbed plainness till near its close. 

"Dr. Brown was, of his class, one of the greatest 
preachers of his day, and was in the truest sense 
a gospel preacher. His great intellect, learning 
and knowledge, never swerved him in the least 
from the simplicity of Christ, and while we say 
this much, say at the same time that he was not 
a safe model for our young preachers, in his most 
striking characteristics. 

" Beyond all doubt, he was greatly useful as a 
preacher. He reached and impressed a few that 
men of less gifts would not have won to Christ. 
But he would have reached and won a much 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 33 

larger number, had his mind moved in an orbit 
less brilliant and less extended, and yet we must 
say he never appeared to us, ambitious to be either 
profound, learned or original. So far from it, 
while he was eminent in these regards, he was 
with all, spontaneously natural and earnest. 

"But we have turned aside from an outline of 
Dr. Brown's early life as a preacher, into an at- 
tempt to describe him, as a preacher. 

"Soon after he entered the Baptist ministry in 
Amherst, he was appointed, we think, by the 
General Association of Virginia, a missionary in 
Lewis County. How long he remained in this 
field, and what was his success in it, we have no 
means of knowing. 

" After this he settled as pastor of several Bap- 
tist Churches, in the counties of Pittsylvania and 
Halifax. While in this field, he became the 
friend and co-laborer of Kev. A. M. Poindexter, 
and also of Rev. Wm. A. Tyree, who had recently 
settled in the latter county as pastor. As yet 
Mr. Brown, was comparatively unknown to his 
denomination in the State. Soon after Dr. A. M. 
Poindexter became acquainted with him, he said 
to the writer, that he regarded Abram Brown the 
most talented young preacher in his State. Still 
it was years before his fame extended beyond his 



34 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

field and association, and in these his brilliant star 
arose slowly. 

"For years he was a country pastor, and then a 
teacher at Hollins Institute, and again a country 
pastor before Virginia Baptists knew that they 
had in this obscure Pittsylvania preacher their 
mightiest intellect. 

"It is likely, his reputation as our greatest 
thinker — and, on given occasions, our greatest 
preacher — was suddenly made by one unexpected, 
unpremeditated, gigantic speech before the Gene- 
ral Association of Virginia. 

" It was soon after the late war, when this body 
met in Petersburg. The report of the Corre- 
sponding Secretary, Hon. H. K. Ellyson, presented 
the discouraging fact that the Board was five 
thousand dollars in debt to its missionaries for 
the past year. The oldest and best friends of this 
noble Board were discouraged. 

"Several brethren attempted to come to the 
rescue of the board in the way of speeches, 
but the difficulties that environed the board and 
seemed to threaten it with immediate stoppage, 
if not dissolution, were so great, that they spoke 
without vigor or effect. The churches of the 
State w^ere impoverished, and dispirited in both 
church and mission work. If ever there was 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 35 

a time, when the noble ship of the State Mission 
Board, was likely to be engulphed, it was at 
this juncture. 

"At this painful crisis Pastor A. B. Brown, of 
Pittsylvania, arose to speak. He had spoken be- 
fore the association before, but never with any 
marked effect or ability. For a short while in 
manner and matter, he was labored. Soon his 
voice became flexible, rich and mellow, his enun- 
ciation loud, rapid, distinct and ringing. The 
theme of this great speech, that most likely saved 
our State Board from collapsing, was, if I can 
correctly state it, ' The essentiality of the Gospel, 
as we hold and preach it, to the welfare of Vir- 
ginia, socially, commercially, politically and relig- 
iously.' 

" He soon became master of the great assembly. 
The speaker, in uttering his great argument, 
wept, and so did all who heard him. Nor was 
weeping all. Many were determining to make 
extra, and greater pecuniary sacrifices, to put on 
foot again the State mission work. When Dr. 
Brown finished his speech. Professor Cocke sprang 
to his feet, saying, ' Brother Moderator, the argu- 
ment is finished. This association is now pre- 
pared to act. I move that subscriptions and 
pledges be made to relieve the board,' when, in 



36 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

less time than was consumed in the speech, the 
whole five thousand dollars were raised, and the 
great crowd arose and sang ' Praise God, from 
whom all blessings flow.' 

" This speech gave Dr. Brown a reputation as a 
powerful thinker and speaker with the Baptists of 
Virginia, that never, in the least, waned while he 
lived ; and all who knew him not only admired 
him for his intellectual and scholarly greatness, 
but loved him for his goodness, and godly sim- 
plicity of character. They, who knew him most 
intimatel}^, admired and loved him most. 

" He had, no doubt, his faults ; but, now that 
death has deprived us of him, his character, with 
its bright assemblage of mental, social and Chris- 
tian excellencies, looms up for our grateful re- 
membrance and imitation. His death is a great 
loss to the Baptist ministry of Virginia, to the 
college of which he was so distinguished a pro- 
fessor, to the cause of education, to the General 
Association of our State and especially to his 
stricken wife and children. 

"He and the writer were from early life en- 
deared friends. Our last interview was on the 
morning after the adjournment of the General 
Association. A few days before, he had requested 
me to pray for the recovery of an ill son. He 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 37 

commenced our last talk by repeating, with tears, 
the request, ' Don't forget to pray for the recov- 
ery of my boy.' 

"He then referred to Rev. W. A. Tyree, of their 
long and mutual attachment, saying, of his early 
friend, but for ill health, he would have attained to 
eminence as a preacher. He also expressed his pur- 
pose to write, for publication, in the minutes of the 
General Association, his estimate of my brother's 
character. But, alas ! before he wrote this tribute, 
and within a few days, the God who gave him, un- 
expectedly to himself and friends, took him to his 
griefless home in heaven. 

"Cornelius Tyree." 

Salem, Va., December 30, 1885. 

Dr. Tyree's sketch is marked by the character- 
istic candor of its author. In what he says of 
Dr. Brown's lack of popular power, he is not sup- 
ported by other distinguished men, whose opinions 
will appear, in later chapters. It was my privilege 
to sit at his feet as his pupil, and also to hear him 
from Sabbath to Sabbath, as he preached his mas- 
terly sermons, from the pulpit of the Charlottes- 
ville Baptist Church. At that time, I was a school- 
girl, and of course in point of intelligence could 
claim only a modest place as one of the people. It 



38 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

must be admitted, that sometimes he descended to 
depths of metaphysical research, and sometimes 
bounded to heights of eloquence, which were 
beyond my capacity : also, that the strain upon 
my powers in attempting to follow him was some- 
times intense; and occasionally, at the end of his 
sermons, I felt exhausted by my own mental 
excitement. To say that he was fully understood, 
would not be true, but I always understood fully 
as much as I could carry. I may not have 
appreciated him, but was consciously exalted, by 
every contact with him. I cannot appreciate the 
ocean, but the sight of it always thrills and 
expands me. 

The common people did not understand Dr. 
Brown, but they understood and assimilated far 
more of thought than they ever gain from com- 
mon men. He roamed on heights, which they 
could never scale, but they stood on tip-toe to 
watch him in his majestic jQights. Besides, they 
caught the subtle and transforming touch of his 
magnetic character. The presence of a great man 
is richly educational — and when like Dr. Brown, 
he is charged with spiritual warmth, as well as 
intellectual light, he quickens into better life, all 
who come under the spell of his power. 

Among the many honored sons, who have 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 39 

delighted to honor Virginia, there is not one 
whom Virginia delights to honor more than 
Thomas Jefferson. And of the valuable and 
imperishable work, that he wrought for her, in 
the legislative halls, the forum, and in the retire- 
ment of his Monticello home, none can surpass 
in magnitude and influence, the originating and 
equipping of the University of Virginia. If he 
had done nothing else for his state, that Institu- 
tion would have made his name immortal. The 
extent of its curriculum, the high standard of 
scholarship required, and variety of its depart- 
ments, make it an object of worthy pride, to every 
Virginian. 

But there were not many who could enter its 
classic halls; not many who could get the pre- 
paratory training, or who could afford the neces- 
sary expense, to receive such a course of study. 
A.mong the Baptist preachers, with a few excep- 
tions, it had not been thought necessary for them 
to have an education beyond a knowledge of 
Latin and a little Greek, and the most ambitious 
of these had sought access to Columbian, and 
later to Richmond College. 

The writer of the following sketch, Dr. John A. 
Broadus, of Louisville, Ky., and the subject of 
it. Dr. Brown, were among the first of the Virginia 



40 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

ministers to seek a University education. And 
surely the denomination could not be more honored 
than to have as its first representatives, at this 
fountain of learning, such gifted minds, such 
laborious students, such consecrated characters, 
as the two mentioned above — and who in paths 
somewhat divergent, have far outgone the pre- 
diction of sanguine friends in their subsequent 
career. 

Dr. Brown, at that time, little dreamed that in 
after years he would be the Gamaliel with this 
University learning of him. 

With great pleasure, I leave my readers to be 
addressed by Dr. Broadus, whose pen and voice 
are constantly inditing words of wisdom to the 
interested multitude, giving them the result of his 
accurate scholarship, intricate research and deep- 
toned piety. He includes in his recollections both 
the time when he was a fellow-student at the 
University, and the time when he was jDastor in 
Charlottesville, a little more than 12 years later. 
I thank him for turning aside from his engrossing 
duties as Professor, to do this deed of love : 

" Mr. Brown spent the session of 184G-7 at the 
University of Virginia, attending the schools of 
Moral Philosophy, Chemistry and Natural Phil- 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 41 

Gsophy. In Moral Philosophy I was his classmate. 
Before the middle of the session it was apparent 
to me that he was the foremost man of the class. 
Everybody knows now that he had a remarkable 
specific talent for that class of subjects. He was 
extremely undemonstrative, and even diffident in 
the class-room and in private. But Dr. McGuffey's 
unrivalled questioning would bring out all that 
was in a man, sometimes surprising the man him- 
self into the consciousness of having thoughts that 
were of real value. We soon began to see that 
Mr. Brown greatly relished philosophical subjects, 
and spoke of them with modesty and sometimes 
hesitation, but with intense interest. He was 
singularly exact in expression, and at times quite 
happy. During that or a subsequent session Dr. 
McGuffey spoke to me about him as an admirable 
student. 

"As my father was living at the University I 
had occasion to introduce my friend to the ladies 
of several families. Not then prepossessing in 
appearance, and not so felicitous in the adjust- 
ment of apparel as in fitting a word to a thought, 
he was also embarrassed in company by his con- 
stitutional shyness ; yet, notwithstanding these 
drawbacks — which are worth mentioning only for 
the sake of this fact — the young ladies saw very 



42 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

soon how uncommonly intelligent he was, how 
elevated in feeling and tone of character, and they 
liked to converse with him. Before the end of 
the session I had a great admiration of his mental 
powers, and his sincerity, simplicity, purity, quiet 
energy, and thorough conscientiousness. He was 
also very unselfish, very prompt and cordial in 
appreciation of others, and even his shyness 
showed no touch of unpleasant self-consciousness. 
"In October, 1859, Mr. Brown became pastor at 
Charlottesville. The ^June Meetings' of that 
year had been held in Charlottesville, and on 
Sunday evening (night) Mr. Brown w^as appointed 
to preach at the Baptist Church. As he sat in 
the pulpit while others were conducting the wor- 
ship, a minister took a seat by his side, and said, 
'You must do your best to-night. Brown. These 
people are thinking of calling you as pastor. I 
know they are — do your best.' Now let us not 
judge over-harshly the man who made this sug- 
gestion. It was in very bad taste of course, and 
showed a sad lack of right feeling about preaching, 
for a right-minded preacher is at such a moment 
extremely anxious to rise above all concern as to 
what people may think of him, to sink everything 
in the passionate desire to benefit his hearers and 
honor the Saviour. This was a well-meaning 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 43 

person, however, and the hint was very kindly 
intended. But how little he knew his man. One 
who witnessed the scene said that Brown seemed 
almost crushed — the very idea of trying to make 
a display in the pulpit was utterly repugnant to 
him, and that anybody should expect to stimulate 
him in this way was humiliating — in fact it made 
his sermon a comparative failure, which had to be 
explained afterwards to some members of the 
church who did not know him. 

" In the summer of 1860 I spent a long vacation 
in the suburbs of Charlottesville. Being in poor 
health and almost entirely unable to go about the 
State and preach, I had the opportunity to hear 
Brother Brown quite regularly, and to see him 
frequently in private. Everybody spoke of him 
with great respect, and now and then one with 
enthusiastic admiration. He was certainly one of 
the most blameless men you could anywhere find. 
The treasurer said he was a most excellent econo- 
mist, and lived comfortably upon a small salary 
without ever getting in debt — which at that 
remote period was thought a very desirable thing 
in a pastor. His conversation, when with two or 
three friends who had some metaphysics in their 
soul, was in the highest degree interesting and 
profitable. His thought upon many subjects was 



44 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

profound and rich — like a geologist revealing mines 
of treasure beneath a surface over which most of 
us had walked unknowing and unheeding. The 
sympathetic reception of his thoughts, or the 
interest of discussion, would kindle his mind into 
a glow, and then his expression w^ould be not only 
exact but often extremely beautiful. While a bold 
and independent thinker, he was anything rather 
than abstracted and self-sufficing. His mind was 
greatly dependent as to its best action upon the 
sympathy of others who might be present, or 
else their pronounced and kindly antagonism. In 
preaching, if his hearers seemed dull, he was 
greatly hampered; if some of them were markedly 
inattentive, it was all he could do to go on; but 
with a congenial theme, in which the hearers also 
were specially interested, he was a great and 
wonderful preacher. Yet by the bulk of his 
hearers his ordinary efforts were then not much 
enjoyed, and his transcendent talents never justly 
appreciated. His habitual range of thought was 
far above the heads of people in general, yet it 
was difficult for him to realize that fact. He did 
not easily comprehend the workings of a common- 
place mind, and therefore could not put himself in 
sympathy with the thinking of average hearers, 
nor adapt the selection and illustration of his 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 45 

thoughts to their understanding and taste. And 
while so greatly dependent upon sympathetic 
listeningj he had not the self-asserting, conquering 
resolution which compels attention. So people 
often complained that he was ' shooting over their 
heads/ while John Hart and Lewis Minor Cole- 
man were rejoicing in an intellectual and religious 
feast. But when some special topic or occasion 
brought him and his hearers into full sympathy, 
the effect was wonderful. By degrees, as the 
years went on, truly appreciative hearers gave Dr. 
Brown something of the reputation he deserved ; 
people who came to know him well loved him 
warmly, as it was inevitable they should do \ and 
so he could more generally command the full 
attention of all present. It is probable also that 
through much experience as pastor and teacher he 
gradually gained more of intellectual sympathy 
with the mass of mankind. Yet his extraordi- 
nary ability was never fully appreciated by people 
in general. Greatly honored and admired by 
Baptists throughout the State and beyond it, and 
now widely and deeply lamented, his powers far 
surpassed his reputation. It appears to me that 
Virginia has produced few such intellects. And 
he was a man to be warmly loved. There are 
many of us who recognize it as among the marked 



46 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

blessings of a lifetime to have been frequent hearer, 
pupil, friend, of A. B. Brown. 

"John A. Broadus." 

Without disparaging in any degree the above it 
is but just to say that Dr. Broadus did not see 
much of Dr. Brown in later life. And while it is 
true that his sermons while pastor in Charlottes- 
ville were suggested and 2)repared mainly for those 
requiring strong meat rather than the pure milk 
of the word — yet those who knew him later as 
the country pastor, the army chaplain, and after- 
wards as the college professor, will bear testi- 
mony in these pages to the greater simplicity and 
unctuousness of his preaching. 

Mr. Brown graduated from the University in 
the schools of Moral Philosophy, Natural Phil- 
osophy and Chemistry, with certificates of pro- 
ficiency in Geology and Mineralogy. He returned 
to his native county and taught a school with much 
success. At this time he preached to some of the 
churches in the neighborhood. While the majority 
of those who heard his early efforts did not appre- 
ciate his ability, yet there were some who saw in 
him the foreshadowing of his brilliant career. 

It seems well to close this chapter with a por- 
tion, at least, of an address delivered, in his hiter 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 47 

life, by the subject of these papers, on Beneficiary 
Education. The story of his heroic struggle to 
educate himself, will stand as a striking illustra- 
tion of the truth and justice of his argument. He 
knew what it was not to be helped in preparing 
himself for the ministry, and that fitted him the 
better to feel for others : 



BENEFICIARY EDUCATION.* 



The Baptist denomination has never admitted, and, we 
hope and believe, never will admit, that thorough scholar- 
ship should be an indispensable condition to entrance upon 
the Christian ministry. Yet the Baptist denomination agrees 
with almost all Christians, and with almost all men who have 
at all thought on the subject, that high attainments in 
literature and science, and especially thorough mental dis- 
cipline, are very desirable to the preacher of the gospel. The 
doctrines which it is his mission to expound are, in their most 
accurate and authoritative form, locked up in dead languages. 
They have been carefully, conscientiously, skillfully trans- 

* Delivered before General Baptist Association of Virginia, held in 
Danville, June, 1877. About that time severe strictures upon beneficiary 
education had appeared in the public prints, and this address of Dr. 
Brown was made at the request of the Education Board. It was regarded 
as a triumphant vindication of the Board's work, and was most warmly 
commended. It was delivered with splendid effect. 



48 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

lated, and, in the main, successfully. But their precious 
contents have never been decanted into vessels of other 
material and shape, without some damage to flavor, without 
some loss of subtle aroma. Who that is worthy to be a 
minister does not long, nay, even aspire, to deal with divine 
truth in its unshrunken roundness and its unimpaired fresh- 
ness? Then the teacher of Christianity, even if he takes the 
truth at second-hand, has to perform upon it functions as diffi- 
cult and as delicate as those which taxed the cautious sagacity 
of a Marshall. What a wide range of ancient literature 
bears on the Bible ! The relation to it of all Hebrew history 
and antiquitien is abundantly obvious. And there is scarcely 
a line of the extant Greek language that has not a more or 
less important outlook on the meaning and construction of 
words in the Scriptures. The Bible, with the fearless frank- 
ness of an honest witness, has committed itself to innumerable 
allusions to concurrent profane history and institutions. 
These are to be studied for their bearing on the Bible 
authenticity. The intellectual food of beginners, instead of 
being left to the natural powers of mastication and degluti- 
tion, is ground into sausages and cut into bits in a manner 
often offensive to the self-respect and pride of the children 
themselves. I cannot remember when, in my first regular 
reading-book, my eyes fell upon the first sentence, " Diligence, 
industry and proper improvement of time are material duties 
of the young." Well, it was rather high-pitched for an 
eight-year old. But I understood something of it, for industry, 
proper improvement of time and duty, were household words 



BENEFICIARY EDUCATION. 49 

with my mother. These threw some gleam of light on the 
associated words, and, if anything was not understood, it 
seemed not material. The next thing I remember was the 
saying of Agesilaus, that boys should learn what they will 
need to know when they grow to be men. Then, I may 
remark, they should learn to do hard work, and not to 
expect too much dandling and sympathy. Toiling along 
through things mysterious, I reached ten partially intel- 
ligible chapters. The one containing in brief the noble life 
and the serene and pious death of the martyred lady Jane, 
the understood part of which threw much light on their 
darker environment. The next was the allegory of that 
plodding application, that, fixing his eye on the temple of 
knowledge, and steadily pressing onward, distanced the 
vigorous but desultory flights of genius. I remember that 
he had stones to remove out of his way, and certainly it would 
not have been well that they should all have been removed for 
him. I am sure that not many difiiculties were cleared from our 
path. It was so in grammar, in geography, in arithmetic, 
in everything. We gained by the hard work we had to do. 
But we did not have help enough from teacher or text-book. 
Now all is changed. We have science made easy — we have 
royal roads to learning. We have dilution and simplicity 
simplified ; we have notes innumerable, keys, translations. 
Difficulties, which masters delighted in as developing strength, 
and even boys rejoiced in as challenging and testing strength, 
are removed, chasms are bridged, roughnesses smoothed, steeps 
are gently graded ; and there is luxurious towering where once 



50 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

there was toilsome climbing. Mind and heart and will are en- 
feebled for want of arduous exercise. When too much help 
palsies the best of all help — self-help — more learning may be 
acquired, but there is danger that real education, soul-vigor, 
will be damaged. But let us not do injustice to the educa- 
tional methods of the latter part of the nineteenth century. 
The school- books, on the whole, are far more rational, pro- 
gressive, cultured than those of a preceding age, and I must 
say that I have lately seen some of the most difficult text- 
books I have ever seen, and, on some subjects, the only really 
sensible ones that I have found. Yet the verdict of intelligent 
educators remains on the chief issue. Our predecessors 
helped too little, we help too much. But do we help too 
much in furnishing the means of education ? May be we do. 
My father, uneducated himself, but loving learning and loving 
me, toiled hard to furnish me, even scantily, with the means 
of education. May be he ought to have left me to work out 
an education. And I, why should I rack my brains till my 
temple aches over the question, How shall I educate my chil- 
dren ? Why should I not help them along as well as I can, till 
they are seventeen or eighteen years of age, and then leave 
them to work their way? 

And why should not the Baptist denomination, which, 
when it had no colleges and no education societies, so in- 
delibly impressed itself on the legislation, the genius, the 
spirit of the entire country, leave it^ poor young men of piety 
and talent to the stimulating and invigorating influence of 
self-reliance and hardship and neglect? There is no reason 



BENEFICIARY EDUCATION. 51 

why it should not, if patronage and pecuniary aid are super- 
fluous and even injurious. If she did enough for the higher 
education when she endowed her noble University, when she 
put generous, intellectual food at a height inaccessible, of almost 
impossible access to the poor young man, she might have said 
to him, cultivate your manhood by toiling up to it. She de- 
cided differently and gave, nearly, for a term of years board 
and tuition to fifty of her meritorious sons at that institution, 
thereby giving it the grandest upward impulses it has ever had. 
The Baptists of Virginia have partially endowed a noble 
college. Shall they now say to the sons of poverty seeking 
preparation for the least remuneration of the learned call- 
ings, find or make a way to the halls ? A rare few might do 
it. Those irrepressible men of genius and of energy who are 
awfully discounted as a credit to the Education Board, be- 
cause they could have succeeded, board or no board, might 
dispense with your help. But these indomitables, I suppose, 
do not flourish solely on bread of sorrow and water of 
affliction. They do not deserve their name, if a smile and 
lifl would soften and paralyze them. "We expect, indeed, 
great benefit to them and to mankind by pushing through 
these very men of whom there is no fear of losing their feet. 
Ah, sir, tell us not to have these men educating themselves 
till they are thirty or thirty-five years old. Let them get 
their education at the time, and the only time, in which 
education is more than material and instrument for the soul, 
and becomes thoroughly inwrought into the powers, habits 
and tastes. Let them complete their preparatory education 



52 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

by the time they are twenty-five, or, if possible, twenty-one. 
You may then trust them with those terrible girls, whose 
influence on the rising ministry seems so much dreaded. 
Delilah will never shear their locks of strength. 

Our policy, how^ever, is not to be adapted to the cases of 
extraordinary men ; but I may say before dismissing them, it 
will not do to predict that every young man of first-class 
ability who sets his head on making money and getting an 
education will succeed. It is pure assumption that ability 
always succeeds. And yet, the percentage of those who are 
born failures and yet are always prating about what they 
would have done or would do with a chance, is not greater 
than the successful men who ascribe their success solely to 
their pre-eminent ability. Sir, there is far more truth in that 
saddest and sweetest pathos in literature, Gray's lament 
over the graves of the obscure and unsuccessful, than in all 
the plausibilities of the great French j)hilosopher Cousin, 
about the success of great men. 

And again, great abilities are not always successful in 
making money. I respect real talent honorably exerting 
itself in acquiring wealth. Talent and even genius, may find 
scope for exercise, in financiering. But we may rest assured 
that all talented men will not prosper in making money. 
Young men strongly inclined to literature and science, will 
not always make and save money. It is a very bold figure 
that makes this land bristle with men who have worked 
their way through college. Bristles stand quite thick where 
they belong. The number would pro])ably be much larger 



BENEFICIARY EDUCATION. 53 

of men equally able, equally meritorious every way, who 
have failed, to the irreparable loss of the country and the 
church. But more than enough has been said of men of 
extraordinary ability. Can enough men of piety, prudence 
and of good, well-balanced minds educate themselves without 
the aid of the denomination ? Let us see, with the present 
policy of the free schools to exclude from the circle of instruc- 
tion Latin, Greek, Algebra and Geometry, and with the effects 
of these same schools, in almost totally annihilating private 
schools. A country youth of seventeen or eighteen is singu- 
larly fortunate if he is prepared for the preparatory depart- 
ment in a college. If he goes through college and seminary 
it will require not much less than ten years, and from $2,500 
to $4000. How shall he make the money ? It is a happy 
accident if at that age he is a skilled mechanic, able to com- 
mand good wages. His surest prospect for raising money, is 
furnished by that much-honored instrument, the plough. He 
will receive for ploughing eight or ten dollars a month ; out 
of this he must clothe himself very cheaply, for it is to be 
hoped he will postpone being a beau till he reaches college. 
How long will he be in raising the money? Must he enter a 
store when so many youths are crowding in, satisfied with 
board and clothing if they may escape the sun ? The country- 
store of the period, the only one accessible to him, is almost 
always a suitable place for the i-etail of ardent spirits. You 
will tremble when he enters them for a moment, once or twice 
a week, in quest of the mail. Here he must sit down amidst 
cotton cloths and gin and whisky, to raise the money to take 



54 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

him through college. The outlook is not encouraging. Oh ! 
but he may teach school. Well, in the olden times, the 
examples were not rare of young men who got ready for 
college by teaching, and then alternated, between going to 
college and teaching, till, at from twenty -four to twenty - 
eight, they came out well-educated, often, indeed, among the 
most solidly educated men of the country. It cannot be so. 
The examinations of the teachers of public schools presup- 
pose a general culture and a knowledge of the art of 
teaching, which will not be exhibited by a youth of eighteen 
or twenty, of fair abilities, and it will be remembered that of 
such we are now speaking. If he gets a school, it will rarely 
be for more than five months in the year, and not often at a 
compensation of more than thirty dollars a month, out of 
which his board must be paid. If he can get through the 
year without any new made debt, he will deserve a medal for 
economy. These remarks sufficiently indicate the appalling 
barriers in the way of a young man working himself through 
college without aid. They constitute, I submit, an adequate 
argument in favor of beneficiary education. 

The reader will observe that this address is 
unfinished. Dr. Brown never wTote out the last 
words of his addresses or sermons. He trusted to 
the inspiration of the occasion to furnish him w^ith 
an appropriate ending. 

Those who were fortunate enough to hear this 
address delivered at Danville, not very many years 
ago, may be able to recall its closing strains. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 55 



CHAPTER lY. 

ENTERING THE HARVEST. 

A BOUT the year 1848 Mr. Brown accepted the 
■^^ appointment of the State Mission Board to 
be its missionary, in Lewis County, then Virginia, 
now West Virginia. 

Pioneer work is always difficult. It is the 
least attractive of all the various departments of 
evangelical labor : for the reason that it requires 
such an outlay of time and strength, and yields 
such tardy and unsatisfactory results. Other than 
men of strong faith and intrepid spirit are unfitted 
to undertake it. The peculiar difficulties of this 
field may be better understood when are taken 
into account the facts, that the country was rough 
and wild, the people living at long distances from 
each other, and in most cases, in houses bare 
of comforts. The Baptists here, were almost 
unknown, the Methodists and Presbyterians being 
the first to occupy the field. The preaching 
had to be done almost entirely in school-houses 
and private dwellings. Once when riding through 
the mountains to one of his appointments, he was 



56 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

overtaken in a snow storm, and came near being 
frozen to death. The snow fell thick and fast, 
and was so blinding that he soon lost his way, and 
winding around the mountain passes for several 
hours, there seemed no hope to him for escape 
from death by freezing. But late in the after- 
noon, numb and chilled he rode up to a farm- 
house — where the kindly attentions of the inmates 
finally restored him. 

It is rather remarkable that a young man, an 
alumnus of the University, of strong talents and 
varied attainments should elect to take on himself 
a life of so much hardship. In striking contrast 
is the spirit of this age, that foists the new and 
inexperienced, upon the largest and most exacting 
of the churches, only to see the victim, at first 
elated at his sudden elevation, wither and shrink, 
and collapse amid the mortification of himself and 
friends. 

The details of his work, as missionary have not 
been obtained. He seldom spoke of what he did. 
He thought himself among the least. He some- 
times spoke of the advantages that such a state of 
discipline afforded him, as he would recall some 
pleasing memories of his missionary life. 

It was his first initiation into the life that is 
useful and far-reaching, in proportion to the 



ENTERING THE HARVEST. 57 

extent of its burden-bearing. His life here was 
the garden that grew that Christian sympathy 
that went out from him to the young inexperi- 
enced ministers afterwards, on so many occasions. 

One incident that comes to us, that must have 
been a source of joy to him — must be mentioned 
here. The lady with whom he boarded was a 
widow with several sons. When he applied for 
his bill, she said, "Mr. Brown you owe me 
nothing ; your influence over my boys has been 
so helpful to them and so pleasing to me, that I 
feel that I am in debt to you." And she could 
not be induced to receive any money for it. 

It has been said that it is much easier to com- 
mence at the mouth of a great river and trace it 
back to its head, noting how different obstacles 
deflected it from its course, while tributary streams 
widened and deepened it, than to follow it out 
from its source. 

Similarly, it is no diflicult matter now to look 
back over the life of the one under review, and 
see what helped or hindered his growth. Notably 
his life of seclusion from society while a mis- 
sionary, often riding alone the most of the day — 
afforded him time for much of that abstract think- 
ing and mental rumination in which he delighted 
to indulge. 



58 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

We must not suppose that metaphysical as he 
was, he was exempt from the ordinary weaknesses 
of mankind. Cupid had darts in his arrows for 
him, as for others. Wliile teaching school, he had 
become engaged to a young lady, with whom he 
was frequently thrown. After going to his new 
field of labor, she accused him of indifference, and 
suggested a termination of the engagement. He 
expected to meet her again at a certain time, and 
failing to do so, he regarded it as the changing 
point in his life. He resigned himself very phil- 
osophically to his fate, but he was not destined to 
remain long outside the bars of female entangle- 
ments. 

He received and accepted a call to some churches 
in Halifax and Pittsylvania Counties, in the year 
1849. Among his earliest acquaintances, was that 
of Dr. A. M. Poindexter, a minister of accurate 
scholarship and high attainments — in certain direc- 
tions the leader of denominational work in the 
State. It was not strange, that two minds with 
such similar tendencies, should be so companion- 
able. They soon became fast friends, and were 
often in each others' society — each filled with 
admiration for the other. The wife of Dr. Poin- 
dexter, was born a Miss Wimbish. In their home 
Mr. Brown met for the first time a cousin of 



ENTERING THE HARVEST. 59 

Mrs. Poindexterj a Miss Sallie Wimbish, a fair 
maiden of 17 years^ attractive and winning, 
who had been a successful student at Charlotte 
C. H., and Hollins Institute, the daughter of a 
wealthy merchant farmer, who lived near. Mr. 
Brown having had his attention called to her, by 
a Rev. Mr. Scott — became a victim to her charms, 
and often found it convenient to stop by on his 
preaching tours, at the elegant home of Mr. 
Wimbish. Mrs. "Wimbish was a niece of Eev. 
Abner Clopton, and was converted by the reading 
of a letter from him to her, which appears in his 
Memoir, written by Dr. Jeter. Their home was a 
home for Baptist preachers — one of those typical 
homes, with which Virginia and the South so 
abounded, before the dark days of the War — 
when plenty and good cheer filled the homes of 
so many, and when the guest was ever welcome. 
Miss Wimbish had some hesitation in deciding to 
give up a home of wealth and luxury, to cast her 
lot with the ever changeful fortunes of a preacher. 
She surveyed the situation calmly, and youthful 
as she was, took on herself those vows, that made 
her the most faithful of wives. They were mar- 
ried in November, 1851, by the Rev. Samuel 
Mason; the bride being 18 and the groom 30 
years of age. 



60 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

At that time, Mr. Brown was pastor of Arbor, 
Mill Stone and Ellis Creek Churches, in Halifax 
and Pittsylvania. Those who had met him, and 
who had heard him preach, had some just esti- 
mate of his worth ; but to the great mass of the 
people of the State he was unknown. Through 
the influence of such men as A. M. Poindexter 
and Kev. Wm. Tyree, his fame was extended, and 
after preaching for a few years in the country 
where he was much beloved, he accepted a Pro- 
fessorship in the Ilollins Institute, where he 
remained two years. 

It seems appropriate at this point, to introduce the 
following valuable contribution, to these memorial 
pages, from the pen of Prof. Chas. L. Cocke, LLD., 
who has been for more than a quarter of a century 
the President of one of the most distinguished 
Institutions in the South, for the higher education 
of women. It is due to this consecrated Baptist lay- 
man to say, that to him attaches the honor of first 
detecting the imperial gifts and ripening scholar- 
ship of Mr. Brown, and of utilizing them in the 
cause of female education. His subsequent career 
as a teacher abundantly vindicated the judgment 
of Prof. Cocke, in calling him into this honorable 
branch of service : 



ENTERING THE HARVEST. 61 

" My acquaintance with the late Rev. A. B. Brown 
commenced in the summer of 1854. At that time 
he accepted an invitation to conduct the depart- 
ments of Moral Philosophy and French, in Hollins 
Institute, and entered upon his labors with us in 
September of that year. His connection with the 
Institute continued for several sessions, during 
which period he filled various positions, the most 
prominent being that of Professor of English 
Language and Literature. About the year 1857 
he received and accepted a call to the pastorate of 
Hampton Baptist Church, and subsequently to 
that of Charlottesville. In 1861 he returned to 
the Institute and remained two sessions. 

"Although Dr. Brown came to us from labors not 
altogether congenial with purely critical literary 
pursuits, he at once proved himself as ' apt to 
teach' from the professor's chair, as from the 
sacred desk. Falling into the regular routine of 
school exercises, as though teaching had been his 
chosen and tried vocation, from the very outset, 
he gave assurance of ability and success. As the 
session progressed, all — pupils, teachers and Sab- 
bath congregations — were impressed with the fact 
that they had in their midst a genius and a mas- 
ter; a man of eminent gifts and scholarship, of 
great originality and grasp of both thought and 



62 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

expression, and of inexhaustible resources of apt 
and pointed illustration. He was, indeed, whether 
from his chair or from the pulpit, a teacher of no 
ordinary mould. In his wide reach of thought, 
soaring beyond the text and the conception of 
authors, he gave forth views of his own, often 
original, always elevated, and always sustained 
by sound logical deduction and brilliant illustra- 
tion. To intelligent, aspiring pupils he was not 
only the safest of guides, lighting up the pathway 
before their inquiring minds, but a constant inspi- 
ration to broader visions from the higher eminences 
of thought. 

" On the methods and mental habits of associate 
teachers, Dr. Brown's influence was most marked 
and in a high degree suggestive and stimulating. 
He seemed to have a general knowledge of all 
departments of study, and in social converse, or 
in business meetings, when called out, his views 
were marked by an originality of conception and 
comprehensiveness peculiar to himself His mind 
seemed to weary of the well-worn ruts and nar- 
row channels of feebler intellects, and reached 
its conclusions by new and more elevated roads. 
By language, simple, forcible, and eloquent, he 
charmed the intelligent listener in the very pro- 
cess of lifting him to a higher realm. From 



ENTERING THE HARVEST. 63 

leadership in any sphere, however humble, his 
peculiarly sensitive nature caused him instinc- 
tively to shrink ; but whether in the social circle, 
in public assembly, or the lecture room, when this 
reserve was once broken and all restraint removed, 
words, thoughts, anecdotes, classic allusions, beauty 
and strength of illustration, flowed in smooth and 
rapid current, charming, edifying and impressing 
all so fortunate as to be his hearers. 

" Himself a man of the most tender and earnest 
sympathies, he constantly craved sympathy from 
others. Often in the secrecy of private intercourse 
has he expressed to me this earnest longing of his 
nature. In the lecture room, in the great congre- 
gation, in the common intercourse of life, in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, his quick per- 
ception could detect the absence of this feeling on 
the part of his hearers, and it always affected him 
most powerfully ; so much so that on several occa- 
sions, in earlier years, he suddenly stopped and 
gave up wholly the exercise in which he was 
engaged. But when fully conscious of both sym- 
pathy and attention, he rose to the full measure 
of his vast powers — his countenance would light 
up, his movements become elastic and graceful, 
and, wholly forgetting himself, with profound 
thought and ^ logic set on fire,' he would hold 



64 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

spell-bound the vast multitudes, however intel- 
lectual and cultured. 

" In the year 1870, as I remember, the General 
Association of Virginia met in the city of Peters- 
burg, and was largely attended. When the sub- 
ject of State Missions came up for consideration, 
the Corresponding Secretary had nothing favora- 
ble to report. The State was in no condition to 
respond liberally to appeals for mission work, 
and it seemed as though the whole machinery of 
organized evangelization was at a stand-still and 
likely to remain so. The prospect was gloomy, 
and the assembly of representative men was bereft 
of the buoyant spirit of enterprise. At this junc- 
ture Dr. Brown arose, and commenced a speech of 
a general character, apparently, directed to no 
particular point ; certainly not to that of finances 
and church contributions. If it had a theme at 
all, it was Christian sympathy. He had uttered 
but a few sentences before the large congregation 
came to perfect quiet, and every eye was riveted on 
the speaker. As he proceeded, he became more 
and more animated. In tender tones and choice 
language, he referred to the changes and the trials 
which, in the providence of God, had come over 
the Baptist churches and the people of Virginia, 
the altered condition and relations of society, the 



ENTEEING THE HARVEST. 65 

rich and cultured, unused to physical toil, brought 
to poverty, and the poor deprived of those sources 
of daily supplies which the demands of active 
capital had always afforded. And then, with a 
pathos, a beauty of language and an eloquence of 
both thought and expression I have never heard 
surpassed, he urged faith and trust in God and in 
each other, — a universal Christian sympathy and 
brotherhood, as the only source of comfort and 
support, amidst the general wreck of material 
interests and the utter subversion of all business 
relations. 

"The speech was overwhelmingly powerful and 
equally appropriate — the effect was "^ marvellous, 
the fountains of Christian sympathies were stirred 
to their utmost depths, tears flowed from eyes 
unused to weeping, faith and hope sprang up 
afresh in many a heart, and new resolves strug- 
gled into life. Although the speech made no 
allusion to money, for nothing was farther from 
the thoughts of the speaker, it was only necessary 
for a brother to arise and propose a subscription 
of five thousand dollars at once, to start the Boards 
again in their high mission. In a few moments 
five thousand four hundred dollars were pledged, 
and every cent of it paid at the appointed time, 
by a poverty-stricken people. On many other 



QG TJFE OF A. R. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

occasions, Dr. Brown's speeches have produced 
impressions equally profound, and even more 
practically effective. 

" Though Dr. Brown at different periods of his 
life filled the 23astoral office in several widely 
separated fields and always left behind him pro- 
found impressions, on Christian character and 
intelligent minds outside of the church, yet he 
never held his true position in life. It is true 
that for want of means, his early educational 
advantages were not liberal, and even after he 
commenced his regular work as a minister, the 
struggle for the maintenance of himself and family, 
was so severe and unrelenting, that he found little 
opportunity for those elevated studies in which he 
so much delighted. But even under such condi- 
tions, had his gifts been recognized in early life, 
and had he been assigned to a professorship in 
some Theological Seminary, his career would, 
doubtless, have been far more brilliant and suc- 
cessful. Under his influence and guidance, many 
a young minister would have been impressed 
with an elevation and breadth of character, and 
inspired with a holy unquenchable ambition which 
might have carried him upward to the highest 
spheres of religious thought and pulpit power. 
But more than this, what he alwavs desired most 



ENTERING THE HARVEST. 67 

to do, he would have produced text-books on 
Mental and Moral Science, Logic, &c., which 
would have given him enduring fame, and sent his 
influence down the ages. In personal character 
Dr. Brown was, I may say, almost a perfect model. 
With all his great powers he was as simple as a 
child — generous to a fault, pure in heart and in 
life, noble and aspiring, unpretentious and genial 
in his associations, even with the humblest. He 
was truly a most lovely character, and truly may 
it be said of him that the "bruised reed would he 
not break, and the smoking flax would he not 
quench," when by so doing needless pain or sor- 
row would come to others. 

"In our Israel has fallen a mighty Prince! 

"Chas. L. Cocke." 

Mr. Brown's life at Hollins Institute was an 
exceedingly pleasant one. The literary com- 
panionship here enjoyed as a member of the 
Faculty, was a life-long pleasure to him. He 
loved to allude to his life at Hollins, and he never 
made an address on female education that he did 
not have something to say about his distinguished 
friend and co-laborer, Chas. L. Cocke. He warmly 
championed a liberal education for females, and 
spent his best energies in furtherance of that object. 



G8 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Those who were in his classes at HolHiis, were 
warmly devoted to him. After his death, from 
many quarters letters of sympathy came to the 
stricken family, from those who were once his 
pupils there, testifying to their admiration and 
affection for him. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 69 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH IN THE COLLEGIATE 
COURSE. 



If the Colleges of England and America had been asked 
thirty years ago what place has the study of English among 
you, the reply would have been unanimous, it has no place. 
Even now it has gained position in the curriculum of but a 
few, and in these few, that position is by no means uniformly 
the same. If I am required to state what is, and not what 
ought to be, the place of English in the Collegiate course, I 
can only say, it is new and unfixed. Yet much depends on 
this obvious statement. The English language till to-day has 
suffered the lack, and suffered from the lack of academic 
patronage. Its study has never been preserved according to 
the severe and scientific methods which have obtained in the 
higher schools of learning. It is almost universally regretted 
among scholars that rich and noble as our language is, its 
more distinctively English element has been to so great an 
extent overlaid and suppressed by foreign intrusion. 

But this matter of regret is no matter of surprise. When 
our great writers and speakers were left to the guidance of 
chance in learning the peculiar riches of their native tongue, 
and thoroughly instructed in the Latin language, is it sur- 
prising that they impressed so much of the vocabulary and 
even of the Syntax of the language which they had carefully 



70 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

studied, iipou that which they can scarcely be said to have 
studied at all? Edward Gibbon and Samuel, writers of 
eminent ability, and in many respects of conspicuous excellence 
have been censured for the Latin cast of their styles. But 
their just censure is that where almost all sinned they were 
sinners above all others. And these great men were more 
siuned against than sinning, as their reprehensible commis- 
sions are justly to be charged in large measure to the omis- 
sions of the schools. 

The formal treatises on English Grammar have suffered 
much from academic neglect. Ben Jonson, Bishop Lowth 
and Dr. George Campbell were all fine classical scholars. 
They had absorbed English as their vernacular. They 
had carefully read many of the best models of English 
prose and verse. They doubtless made honest efforts to 
develop by induction the lav.s of English Syntax, but being 
with all these advantages much greater proficients in Latin 
Grammar than in English, they did what might have been 
predicted, they translated what was really common to the two 
languages, which was well ; they wrenched English into a 
forced correspondence with Latin, which was not well. They 
made some allowances for the absence or meagreness of 
inflection in English, in which they could not go amiss. And 
they turned over their valuable, but rather fragmentary, con- 
tributions to Euglish Grammar. That compiler appeared in 
the person of Lindley Murray, a man certainly of no great 
erudition, but of a sagacity, judgment, taste and patience to 
which Dr. Webster has done scant justice. He built the 



ENGLISH IN THE COLLEGIATE COURSE, 71 

fragments, wliich were ready to his hands, into a skillful mosaic, 
so adroitly concealing the seams as to make the whole wonder- 
fully resemble the work of a single organizing mind. If he 
made any contributions, they are not strikingly inferior to 
the work of his masters. 

Since Murray's day, with some honorable exceptions in the 
last few years, no one seems to have made an honest effort to 
lift himself out of the old ruts. Roswell Smith in his dia- 
logue with babies has put the final term to the old system. 
The failure of Smith was due neither to ignorance nor to 
weakness, for in another department of authorship, he has 
shown considerable ability. 

He failed, from attempting to teach Grammar as a science 
to those who were incapable of learning it. He failed as much 
greater men have failed in similar circumstances. The rare 
powers, and the pre-eminent professional learning of Sir John 
Herschel, failed in an attempt to popularize astronomy, and 
only succeeded in producing a treatise midway between the 
demands of the scientific student and of the general reader. 
Too meagre and commonplace for the one, and too technical 
for the other. If the English language had been taught 
according to the severer methods, which could alone have 
found favor in a respectable college, there probably would 
have been no such book as Smith's for any class of students ; 
it surely could never have been the only work on English 
Grammar, which many educated persons have examined ; and 
then could no intelligent Virginia teacher say^ Lavater may 
become obsolete, Newton and Laplace may be distanced 



11 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

in the future ; but woe to the mau who attempts to alter 
Roswell C. Smith. 

We can but think that the chief reason why the English 
language is in general so inaccurately spoken and written, is 
that its culture is still new to the Colleges and Universities of 
England and America. The French language receives, in its 
native landmarks, more academic attention than the English 
receives in this country. The fact is — may I not say — the 
result is, that the French vocabulary is much more precise in 
its use, and its grammar much more fixed and much more 
loyally obeyed. Yet enlightened Frenchmen complain of 
their countryman's neglect of study of their noble language. 
A distinguished French author recently said, with somethiug 
of humorous exaggeration, " there are in Europe probably 
as many as a half-dozen men who tolerably well understand 
Latin. Those who understand French are much fewer." 
Such a man might, in a judgment of charity, give Grant White 
the unique place in English scholarship which Hegel gave a 
single student in the Hegelian philosophy, when he said, 
" there is only one living that understands me, and he does 
not understand me." 

In saying that the English language, both in its words and 
constructions, is different from what it would have been with 
diligent academic cultivation, I wish not to be understood 
as cherishing or encouraging hostility to anything which has, 
happily or unhappily, become an element of the language. I 
am far from denying, that while much has been imported into 
English, which could have been better advantageously sub- 



ENGLISH IN THE COLLEGIATE COURSE. 73 

stituted, by the encouragement of home production, the 
importations on the whole have greatly enriched the language 
"with necessaries, with conveniences and with elegant and 
innocent luxuries. But be this, as it may, it is conclusive 
to add that every incoming word that has stood the challenge 
and gained footing, has the full rights of citizenship. I protest 
against any studied preference of the Anglo-Saxon element. 
Tro8 Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur. The two 
venerable dialects, whose confluence formed our noble speech, 
were kindred tongues. Their contributions are sometimes 
hard of distinction. The Romance is now and then, as short 
and bare as the Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxon is some- 
times as stately and sonorous as the Romance. Let alone, 
they will make a fit and friendly division of labor between 
themselves. The Latin will be prominent in the higher 
walks of science and art, and in the more purely intellectual 
processes of the mind ; but the Anglo-Saxon well expresses 
your anger, your love and your hate, your scorn and your 
smiles, and your laughter, your tears, your sighs and groans, 
your outcryings and your wailings. It names our dearest 
friends, father and mother, brother and sister, son and 
daughter, husband and wife. It is the speech of the cradle 
and the play-ground, the fireside and the board, the shop and 
the market. But it rises and soars — 

[It will be observed that this address is unfin- 
ished. Dr. Brown seldom wrote his closing sen- 
tences. He trusted to the inspiration of the 
occasion for them.] 

E 



74 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HAMPTON, PASTOR. 

TN January, 1857, Mr. Brown dissolved his first 
connection w^ith Hollins Institute, with a view 
of assuming the pastoral care of the Baptist Church 
in Hampton, Va. Hampton at that time was one 
of the most cultivated and delightful towns in 
Virginia. Located near Fortress Monroe, in full 
view of Hampton Boads, and enjoying the delights 
of the sea breezes as well as the boundless produc- 
tions of the ocean, it was the home of wealth, 
intelligence and refinement. The Baptist Church, 
while not large, had a stately house of worship, 
the larger proportion of the social and financial 
strength of the community in its membership. 
Just about the time that Mr. Brown's pastorate 
commenced, the Chesapeake Female College, 
situated near the town, began its brief but 
brilliant career, and added a new attraction 
to the Hampton pastorate. It was,, therefore, 
under peculiarly auspicious conditions that he 
first entered on his work as a iown pastor. It is 
universally conceded that his Hampton pastorate 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 76 

was in the best sense an eminent success. The 
attachment between the pastor and the people was 
intimate and devoted. The church possessed an 
almost boundless admiration for its eloquent and 
scholarly pastor. Even to this day, wherever you 
find the remnants of that fine old church, you 
will find the enthusiastic admirers of the lamented 
Brown. 

On his part, the devotion was none the less pro- 
found and enduring. He was wedded in heart to 
the Hamptonians. It was a notable fact in his 
subsequent life that whenever he came in reach of 
any of the old Hampton families, he made it a 
point to seek them out and kindle anew the fire 
of their olden love. 

Of his life in Hampton, the reader will find in 
the subjoined paper a loving and suggestive sketch 
from the pen of Dr. Wm. R. Yaughan, then a citi- 
zen of Hampton, but now the accomplished Presi- 
dent of the Chester Female College : 

"It was early in the month of December, 1856, 
that the subject of this sketch first came to 
Hampton. 

" Rev. David Shaver, DD., had been many years 
the ' under shepherd ' of the flock. His sermons 
were not only admired because of their clearness 



76 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

and point, but owing also to the fact that they 
were invariably delivered in a style peculiarly 
attractive, notwithstanding a physical trouble 
which much interfered with his otherwise fault- 
less manner in the pulpit; nevertheless, his dis- 
courses w^ere instructive, deep, profound. His 
appropriate, though not studied, gesture, fine per- 
sonal appearance, and winning countenance, could 
not fail to make a good impression upon his 
hearers, of all denominations of Christians and all 
classes of people. 

" Dr. Shaver preached his best sermons to his 
oicn congregation. His preparation appeared as 
thorough when he stood in the pulpit before his 
people, as at any other time or upon any other 
occasion. 

" Dr. Brown succeeded the pastor, so briefly and 
imperfectly referred to, and entered upon his duties 
the first of January, 1857. 

'' His visit in December, 1856, was made under 
peculiar circumstances. 

" Perhaps not a member of the church had ever 
seen him, and few of the members had heard of 
him. Endorsed, how^ever, by that truly great and 
good man, know^n and loved by all Virginia Bap- 
tists — A. M. Poindexter — he received a cordial 
w^elcome. 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 77 

" The weather was by no means propitious. 
The winter of 1856-57 was the coldest ever ex- 
experienced in Virginia. The announcement that 
'A hrother Brown would fill the pulpit on the 

Sabbath of / did not fail to bring together 

quite a large congregation, notwithstanding the 
cold day. He preached twice. His first sermon 
was good, the next better. Comparisons are inevi- 
table. They are made under all circumstances. 
The ^out-going' and ^in-coming pastors' often re- 
ceive their full share. The difference in the per- 
sonal appearance of the two men referred to, as 
they walked the church aisles, or stood before the 
people, can be appreciated by all who have seen 
them. A more striking contrast is seldom found. 

" You cannot, neither can the reader of these 
lines, fail to see that our brother experienced no 
little degree of nervousness, and was by no means 
at ease. What a trial it must be, when a minister 
of Christ has to pass through such an ordeal 1 

" From the moment he arose to open the exer- 
cises of the hour, to the close of his sermon, the 
greatest attention was given, by a congregation 
noted for closely following the preacher, from the 
announcement of his text to the close of his 
discourse. 

" Upon him all eyes were turned. It did not 



7o LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

require a vivid imagination to read the thoughts of 
the old brethren, the middle aged, and the young 
— sisters included — when our brother preached his 
first sermon before the Hampton Baptist Church. 

" I did not know it then, but a closer, more inti- 
mate acquaintance in after years, clearly proved 
to me the trying ordeal through which this humble 
man of God was passing. 

" He felt keenly the situation, but proved him- 
self equal to the occasion, as the subsequent action 
of the church showed, by extending to him a 
unanimous call to become Dr. Shaver's successor. 

" During this visit to Hampton, Dr. Brown was 
my guest. Pie met many of the brethren at their 
homes, and wherever he went, it seems, a warm 
feeling of friendship sprang up, lasting to the close 
of his pastorate, indeed to the close of life. Go 
Avhere you will, in all that country, near Hampton, 
if any of the brethren or sisters who were then 
alive refer to their former pastor — A. B. Brow^n — 
or the children of those friends speak of him, you 
will hear expressions of love and affection seldom 
heard concerning any man, in any communit3\ 
To know him was to admire him, to know him 
well was to sincerely love him. 

'' It was a cold, dark day, the first Sabbath in 
January, 1857, w4ien Dr. Brown entered upon his 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 79 

duties as pastor of the church, and, as such, 
preached his first sermon. Through the many 
changes which more than twenty-nine (29) long 
years have wrought, and hundreds of sermons 
listened to, in the mean time, as they came fresh 
from the lips of brethren of the Baptist ministry, 
the text and sermon of our brother have not been 
forgotten : ' For I determined not to know any- 
thing among you save Jesus Christ and him cru- 
cified.' — 1 Cor. 2d chap., 2d verse. 

" From that day onward our brother had a warm 
place in the hearts of many brethren. A few, 
like Thomas, may have had 'doubts' Some weeks 
passed before he preached a sermon not equaled — 
surely not surpassed on the same theme by any 
minister — the 'Sin of Govetousness! 

" For more than one hour he held the large con- 
gregation, as it were, ' spell-bound.' With force 
and power he told of this subtle sin, presenting 
it as never before unfolded to us. We did not ask, 
' Lord, is it I ? ' but left the house feeling that 
the time had come for all to cry unto God for 
forgiveness I 

"The winter of 1856-57 was the coldest ever 
experienced in Virginia. Icebergs formed in Hamp- 
ton Koads. Great ships and steamers could not 
move because of the mass of ice in the Eoads and 



80 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Chesapeake Bay. Two weeks passed before the 
people of Hampton had communication w^ith friends 
in Norfolk. Several large immigrant ships, in the 
midst of the great storm, bound to New York, 
came into Hampton Roads. Much suffering oc- 
curred. Scores of these people landed at Old 
Point, and some made that vicinity their future 
home. Among the few persons who could com- 
municate with these German immigrants, was the 
pastor of the Baptist Church, w^ho, while not 
fluent in speech, yet such w^as his knowledge of 
the language, his remarkable quickness in acquir- 
ing anything to which he turned his extraordinary 
perceptive faculties, that, to the astonishment of 
the citizens and the delight of his brethren, he 
was often found conversing with, and interpreting 
for the Germans, as well as for the curious or 
interested Americans. 

" During Dr. Brown's pastorate, additions, from 
time to time, were made to the church. It was 
numerically and financially strong when he took 
charge of it. Perhaps with the exception of two 
or three Baptist churches in Virginia, the aggre- 
gate wealth of the one, at Hampton was not sur- 
passed, when he resigned to accept a call to 
Charlottesville. 

" His congregations, generally good, were fre- 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 81 

quently large. He preached to a people who 
had been instructed by some of the first men in 
the Baptist denomination — pious and gifted minis- 
ters, who have never failed to make their mark 
wherever they have gone; hence his was an 
appreciative congregation. It is only necessary 
to make a brief reference to his eminent prede- 
cessors, to show that our brother — coming the first 
time from country churches to a town^ not city, 
congregation — well sustained the high opinion en- 
tertained of him by Dr. Poin dexter, who, as above 
indicated, recommended him to our brethren. Some 
now alive have not forgotten the grand sermons of 
that truly great preacher, John Goodall — vide, 
' Taylor's Life of Virginia Ministers.' He was 
succeeded by Joseph Walker, one of the best 
pastors in our land. Then came the now sainted 
Jacob R. Scott, who was called to the chaplaincy 
of The University of Virginia, and was the first 
minister of any denomination of Christians who 
was invited to remain two sessions. A young man 
who has since proved himself capable and worthy 
to fill any pulpit in this State, succeeded brother 
Scott — I refer to Rev. Jos. R. Garlick, D.D. His 
sermons and pastoral work have not been forgotten. 
Then came Dr. Shaver. Here is a line of pastors 
covering a period of nearly thirty years — men 



82 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

whom the Baptists of Virginia and of otht^r States 
have again and again honored. 

" I have referred to these brethren, to show 
that a 2)astor following them, remotely or immedi- 
atel}', and yet successful in his worl\ must have 
been a minister of more than ordinary gifts. Yea, 
a gifted man. 

" That he maintained a high position as a 
preacher and pastor, in a church noted for the 
superior attainments of his predecessors, I have 
endeavored to show. But there are men now living, 
so well known, who at different times were mem- 
bers of his congregation, and who will bear testi- 
mony to his superior attainments, that I feel con- 
strained to mention their names : President Forey, 
Col. John B. Gary, and many of the cadets of his 
Militar}^ Academy ; also Rev. Jas. C. Hyden, DD., 
and Rev. I. B. Lake, DD., both of whom w^ere, at 
the time of which I write, professors in Chesa^ 
peake College. 

" The families of teachers, intelligent farmers, 
merchants, physicians, and lawyers, sat under the 
preaching of Dr. Brown, and were taught, as few 
people are instructed from the pulpit, by this emi- 
nently pious man. 

" Some of our friends who were present at the 
meeting of the General Association, June, 1858, 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 83 

may liave forgotten the names of those by whom 
they were entertained, whose hospitality they en- 
joyed. The grand introductory sermon of Dr. 
Poindexter may possibly have faded from their 
memories; the excellent addresses delivered by 
Burwell Snead and other laymen and preachers; 
but one scene, in which our brother was the chief 
actor and in which he bore the most conspicuous 
part, was the baptism of seven young people — 
gentlemen and ladies — this surely will never be 
forgotten by those who witnessed it. 

" It was a beautiful afternoon early in June, 
the saline atmosphere was invigorating, the sur- 
face of the pretty river was rippled by a refreshing 
summer's breeze. The place may be described as 
a semi-circle. Gradually rising from the water 
near by, were the inviting and attractive homes of 
the citizens of Hampton. More than 1000 people 
had there assembled. Representative men from 
Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mary- 
land and from all parts of Virginia, were there. 
Our brother — then the pastor of the First Baptist 
Church in Richmond — Rev. J. L. Burrows, DD., 
was present. As he took his position to address, 
in his clear ringing voice, the multitude; standing 
at the river's edge, not noticing that the tide was 
flowing inward — as the sailors say — he finished 



84 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

his eloquent address, during the delivery of which, 
the incoming tide had hurled his feet in water. 
The porticoes, even the windows of the adjar 
cent houses, were all filled with eager spectators 
of this lovely scene. 

" No blind Bartimeus was there ; but I saw in 
the top — perched upon the limb — not of a ^Syca- 
more,' but of a Mulberry tree, the small and lithe 
form then, of the now vigorous and portly Bishop, 
of the Church at Wilmington, N. C. 

"Upon the evening breeze was wafted far away 
across the waters, the songs of the multitude. 
How appropriate then seemed the words of Judson : 

* Come, Holy Spirit. Dove Divine, 
On these baptismal waters shine, 

And teach our hearts in highest strain, 
To praise the Lamb for sinners slain.' 

And then Dr. Brown in his own peculiar, but im- 
pressive manner, ^buried these young converts 
with Christ in baptism.' 

" Who among that vast crowd were not reminded 
of the precious words? 

* 'Tis done ; the great transaction's done ; 
I am my Lord's and He is mine!' 

While the eyes of scores of Christians were filled 
with tears of joy, a voice led off in a SAveet song of 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 85 

Zion, as the happy souls ^came up out of the water/ 
in which a grand choir of 500, or a thousand people 
joined. Truly, 4t was well to be there!' the sun 
was fast setting when the Christians parted, 
saying : ^Of all the pleasant hours and days spent 
during this meeting of the association, the past 
hour has crowned them all.' 

"When it became known that brother Brown 
had determined to succeed Dr. John A. Broadus, 
as the pastor of the Church at Charlottesville, 
expressions of sincere regret were heard from all 
classes of our people. A prominent Methodist 
gentleman said : ^I have often parted with my 
pastors, but I feel more keenly the departure of 
the Baptist pastor than of any minister I have 
ever known.' 

"As further evidence of the high esteem in 
which he was held, and the friendly relations ex- 
isting between Dr. Brown and the people generally, 
the valued work — Olshausen's Commentary on the 
New Testament, translated into English for Clark's 
foreign theological library, and revised, etc., by 
Prof. A. C. Kendrick, of Rochester University — 
in six large volumes, was formally presented to 
him by a number of young gentlemen of the town, 
irrespective of religious affiliation. 

" Soon after this I parted with my pastor, my 



86 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN. DD. LLD. 

friend and, I may add, 7ni/ teacher. Often did I 
' sit at his feet,' and from him gather knowledge 
as from no other man. Another parting has been 
experienced, so unexpectedly, hence the more 
crushing the blow. 

" You will indulge me — though this letter is 
longer than I intended it should be — in saying 
that I knew Dr. Brown well. Perhaps, his own 
family circle excepted, I was as well acquainted 
wath him as any one ; our friendship, close, cor- 
dial, and sincere, lasted nearly thirty years. Often 
did w^e confer not only upon church affairs, but 
upon subjects only mentioned among friends most 
intimate and enjoying the full confidence of each 
other. As his family physician, we w^ere brought 
together under circumstances which draw men 
into a close communion and afford ample opportu- 
nities for looking into character. 

" T love to think of Dr. Browm as a brave man ! 
AVith unfeigned feelings of admiration, I contem- 
plate his humility of spirit, kindness of heart, his 
sympathizing words in the dark liours of affliction 
and grief, his hospitality, but, more than all, his 
eminent i^iety. It is no vain panegyric to add, that 
Dr. A. B. BroAvn w^as one of the most pious men I 
have ever knoAvn. I think I know -whereof I writ«. 

" Some good people did not know enough of him 



THE HAMPTON PASTOE. 87 

to form correct ideas of his character. By many 
the opinion has been entertained that he was 
' austere ' and not easily approached, that he did 
not quickly appreciate the troubles of others. 
Never! never was a greater mistake made in the 
character of a man ! 

" It was his modesty rather than austerity which 
caused those slightly, or not at all acquainted with 
him, to arrive at such a conclusion. 

" Imperfectly, and pressed for time, have I per- 
formed the task assigned me, of giving my recol- 
lections of Dr. Brown while the pastor of the church 
at Hampton. 

" I must be pardoned if while writing, I have 
occasionally turned from closely following my sub- 
ject, to pay an humble tribute to the memory of 
our departed friend. Others will perform this part 
of the work far better than I can hope to do, and 
by them this pleasant duty will be well performed. 

"Wm. R. Yaughan." 

It seems proper that the foregoing paper should 
be supplemented by another, furnished by one of 
Virginia's most devout and gifted sons. In some 
respects there was a striking resemblance in char- 
acter and scholarship, as there was also an inti- 
mate friendship, between Dr. A. B. Brown and 



88 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Dr. ,J. C. Hiden. It is pleasant, therefore, to 
present Dr. Hiden's reminiscences of his deceased 
friend : 

" My first acquaintance with Bro. Brown was 
formed at Hampton, Ya., where he was then pas- 
tor. In the fall of 1857, I had been elected a 
professor in Chesapeake Female College. Bro. 
Brown was president of the Board of Trustees, 
and took the greatest interest in the w^ork of the 
College. Our acquaintance soon ripened into a 
warm, intimate and life-long friendship. He was 
my pastor, and was a frequent visitor at the Col- 
lege, w^here he w^as always gladly received and 
warmly welcomed ; and I was, in turn, a frequent 
visitor at his house, and spent many a happy and 
profitable hour in the most intimate converse with 
him in his study. 

*^ Though he was a very close student, and an 
omnivorous reader in general literature, he never 
showed the slightest sign of being interrupted by 
the frequent visits of a raw and inexperienced 
youth of twenty, who had seen little of the world, 
and from whose conversation little could have been 
learned. In more than one particular, Bro. Brown 
reminded me of John C. Calhoun, but especially 
was he like Mr. Calhoun in his great fondness for 
the society of young men. 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 89 

" At this period I was not sufficiently trained 
to be able to appreciate, nor even to follow, the 
great preacher in his best pulpit work. He delved 
so deep, and soared so high that I was not unfre- 
quently left behind. He had Lewis Minor Cole- 
man's " range," but he often overshot mine. Still, 
I was not always out of range, and was frequently 
hit by a centre shot: and this happened often 
enough to convince me that the gun was one of 
powerful metal, and that the ammunition used was 
of the best. 

" Now and then I was especially struck with 
his extraordinary capacity and skill in the use 
of Scripture quotations. He would bring them in 
at the most unexpected points, and would choose 
them from the most unexpected places. As an 
instance of this, I recall, after twenty-eight years, 
and I am confident almost verbatim^ the language 
I heard him use in a most earnest and powerful 
exhortation to the unconverted : ' Sinner, how 
know you but that even now the recording angel 
is writing down the last sin that shall fill up the 
black account of your rebellions against your 
Maker; and as he closes the book says, in the 
words of Pontius Pilate, ^What I have written I 
have written ! ' ' 

" The child-like candor and simplicity of Bro. 



90 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Brown's nature was such as now and then to lead 
him to do or say what seemed to be rather eccen- 
tric things. As an instance of his uncommon 
candor: On a certain Sunday, just after taking 
his stand to preach, he said, ' I suspect that some 
of my hearers to-day will think, what I cannot but 
agree with them in thinking, that the discourse 
is not even up to my usual imperfect standard of 
preparation. My excuse is that I have been so 
engaged during the week that I have not given 
my usual amount of time to the preparation for 
my pulpit work to-day.' This sounded a little 
odd ; but when, a few days after this, I was ad- 
mitted behind the scenes and learned liow he had 
' been so engaged during the past week,' the whole 
thing appeared to be eminently characteristic. The 
truth was that Bro. Brown had just gotten pos- 
session of Randall's Life of Jefferson, and to a 
thorough-going States-rights Democrat, this was a 
bonanza which so took possession of his mind as 
to cheat him out of his time and steal away his 
attention; and then, when Sunday came, he felt 
so conscious of his lack of preparation, that he 
was constrained to malce the apology recorded 
above. A day or two after this apology I was in 
his study, and, pointing to Randall's book, which 
was lying on his study table, he said : ' Iliden, 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 91 

there is the fellow that robbed me of my time last 
week and sent me only half prepared into my 
pulpit Sunday.' If he had not taken the trouble 
to tell us that he was not prepared to preach, I 
have not the least idea that any one would have 
suspected it. Indeed, his mind was so full that 
its ordinary overflowings, like those of the Nile, 
were exceedingly fertilizing. 

"After leaving Chesapeake College, I entered 
the University of Virginia, as a student, and for a 
year heard John A. Broadus, who was then pastor 
of our church in Charlottesville. At the close of 
that year Bro. Broadus resigned the pastorate to 
enter upon his work as a professor in our Theo- 
logical Seminary ; and A. B. Brown was called to 
succeed him' in Charlottesville. Then Bro. Brown 
again became practically my pastor; and it puzzles 
me even now to tell whether the change from 
Broadus to Brown was a good thing for me. It 
would require a much more self-confident critic 
than I to say anything positively on such a ques- 
tion. It is as hard as to say which of the great 
English classic writers one enjoys most, or to settle 
the comparative merits of ' Bleak House ' and the 
' Caxtons.' I shall make no attempt to compare 
the two preachers; but I will say that each 
is the only one that I ever liked to hear follow 



92 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

the other, unless Tiberius Jones could be got 
to do it. 

" Soon after Bro. Brown took charge in Char- 
lottesville, I happened to drop in at Prof. Lewis 
Minor Coleman's Study. He had heard Bro. 
Brown for the first time in Charlottesville, and 
was enthusiastic in praising his preaching. He 
said, ' Mr. Hiden, who is this man Brown ? Where 
did he come from ? I did not know that we had 
such a man among us ; ' and from that time on, 
Brown ' had Coleman's range/ 

"It has sometimes been said that only culti- 
vated thinkers could follow Brown ; that he was 
' too metaphysical ' for the common mind. There 
is some truth in this ; but it is misleading neverthe- 
less. It is no compliment to any man's style to 
say that you can follow him ' without thinking.' 
It is the speaker's business to make you think ; 
and if you follow him without thinking, then you 
would do well to go elsewhither and hear another 
man. 

" Bro. Brown once, w^hile in Charlottesville, 
heard of some criticism of his ^ metapliysical ' 
preaching, and somewhat characteristically men- 
tioned it from his pulpit. After stating the 
nature of the criticism, he said : ^A large part 
of what people have chosen to call metaphysics 



THE HAMPTON PASTOR. 93 

comes out of this book/ (laying his hand on 
the Bible.) 

"About this time, I heard a plain, hard-headed 
mechanic, a member of Bro. Brown's church and 
an enthusiastic admirer of his preaching, say: ^I 
hear folks complain that they can't understand 
Brown ; but I believe it is because they know so 
little about their Bibles.' 

" However it may be explained, or whether ex- 
plained at all, it is certainly true, that not a few 
people, who never read a book on metaphysics, and 
did not know the meaning of the term, did greatly 
enjoy, admire and profit by Bro. Brown's preaching. 

" But Bro. Brown was not only a great preacher 
— he was a capital listener. Never shall I forget 
the help and comfort which, as a listener, he has 
frequently given me, notably within the last two 
summers, when I had the pleasure of preaching 
to him several times in Grace Street Church, 
Eichmond, Ya. To see his fixed and eager gaze, 
as he leaned forward to catch every word ; to feel 
the warm grasp of his hand when the preaching 
was over, and to hear his words of sympathy and 
kindly appreciation — all this was truly inspiring. 
And thus he listened to every preacher who pro- 
claimed honestly and in his own way, the great 
fundamental truths of the gospel of Christ. He 



94 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

was a man witli an open sense — indeed one of the 
most broad-minded men I have ever known. Never 
did I know any man who more fully embodied in 
his own character and conduct the aphorism of 
Terence : ' I am a man, and think nothing human 
foreign to me.' 

"J. C. IIlDEN." 
Lexington, Ky. 



FIRST SERMON DELIVERED IN HAMPTON. 



"I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and 
Him crucified," — 1 Cor. xi. 2. 

This was the resolution which governed the apostle in the 
proclamation of the gospel. And this well deserves to be 
the model of the guiding purpose of every herald of the cross. 

The apostle says, " I determined not to know anything 
among you save Jesus Christ, and Him cruciBed," but there 
seems to be no emphasis on the word you, in this connection, 
to show that the apostle felt it important to use special reserve 
in his ministrations among this people. The meaning is not 
that he would not preach anything but Christ Crucified espe- 
cially among them ; but that he would not preach anything 
else — even among them. Their attachment to philosophical 
speculations should not influence him to attempt an adjust- 



FIKST SEEMON IN HAMPTON. 95 

ment of the gospel to Grecian systems, nor to apologize for its 
want of harmony with them, as though it needed the patronage 
of human science. The Greeks maintained the most admired 
schools of rhetoric, and delighted in eloquence. Doubtless 
the apostle might have conciliated some popularity to his 
system, by couching it, in the enticing words of man's wisdom. 
But he was too honest, too manly, too prudent, to gain a 
temporary advantage for his doctrines, by diluting them with 
human wisdom, or masking them with human eloquence. If 
men gave in their adhesion to his system, it should be to 
the plain, unmitigated, offensive gospel. It should be to the 
gospel, the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel. 

The cross was the central test truth of the system. It was 
the shibboleth of the new faith, and no minced shibboleth 
would answer its purpose. Paul had seen, not what Con- 
stantine is reputed to have seen 300 years afterwards, the 
sign of the cross in the heavens ; but he had seen the crucified 
one himself; he had had the doctrine of the cross revealed to 
him, and had in effect, heard what Constantine is fabled to 
have heard ; " Conquer by This." 

No one might say, "There is nothing strange or super- 
natural in the spread of this gospel. Paul is a great genius. 
He has convinced men by an ingenuity and speciousness of 
reasoning, which might have made them accept any absurdity ; 
he has overwhelmed them, with a torrent of oratory which 
would have given charms, to any cunningly devised fable." 
No, the excellency should be of God and not of him. The 
faith of his followers should depend upon the demonstra- 



96 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

tion of the Spirit and of power. For these reasons Paul 
determined not to know anything among the Corinthians save 
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 

But how shall we understand, his not determining to know 
anything else? Could he purposely forget, the instructions 
of Gamaliel, his distinguished master in Jewish learning ? 
Could he by an act of will, annihilate his knowledge of 
Grecian philosophy ? Could he erase from his memory every 
record of experience, and every impress of observation, except 
the very essence of the gospel ? Certainly not. But he could, 
and did of set purpose, forbear to avail himself of any aid, 
he might find in them to lessen the ofi^ence of the gospel. 
Though he might be all things to all men in the manner of 
his preaching, and in the illustration of his great theme, his 
subject and his doctrine, he would draw only from Calvary. 
Whatever else he might know, he did not know ofl!icially, as 
an ambassador of heaven. Our minister at the Court of St. 
James may be thoroughly acquainted with political and other 
aflfairs in our country, but rs the representative of his country, 
at that court, he will properly restrict himself to knowing 
only, what is found in his letter of instructions. 

And Paul as an ambassador for Christ, praying men in 
Christ's stead to be reconciled to God, would know only Him 
who knowing no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in Him. This renunciation of 
all other knowledge for the knowledge of Jesus, must have 
cost Paul an effort of self denial. Had he known nought 
else in any sense, it would not have been necessary to 



FIRST SERMON IN HAMPTON. 97 

determine to know nothing else. But lie had spent his youth 
in the study of the Jews' religion, and profited above many 
his equals. 

He would seem to have had some acquaintance, wdth Grecian 
learning. Now to have been willing to withdraw himself from 
fields, in which his mind had long loved to expatiate, must 
have required an effort, and his piety must have been ardent 
beyond modern example, if this effort did not amount to a 
struggle. But, to be willing in the midst of a highly polished 
people, to be accounted rude and ignorant from failure in 
disposition to exhibit his knowledge, displayed a moral 
heroism of the highest order. I have said that Paul appears 
to have had some acquaintance with Grecian learning, but 
there is no proof of his eminent proficiency in it, which some 
claim for him. He was brought up, in a Grecian city, of no 
mean reputation, but how many reared in Grecian or American 
cities, fail to attain the polish, for which these cities are dis- 
tinguished. He was brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of 
Gamaliel ; but we have no right to interpolate into Gamaliel's 
course of instruction, anything not authorized by the record. 
Now, Gamaliel was a teacher of the Jewish law, and so far as 
we know, a teacher of Jewish law only. But Paul quotes in 
his writings from Grecian authors These quotations amount 
in all his speeches and epistles to three. But it would be as 
illegitimate to infer from these, extensive acquaintance with 
Grecian literature, as to infer from the same number of 
quotations from Shakspeare, Addison and Scott, an intimate 
knowledge of the English classics. 



98 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Besides, the apostle's style is, coDfessedly, not pure classic 
Greek; but the Holy Spirit whilst guiding the mind into all 
truth, and securing a faithful expression of his (right) meaning, 
seems throughout the entire canon of the Scriptures, to have left 
the sacred writers, to their natural and habitual style. Such 
then was Paul's customary style, and the fact is inconsistent 
with his being an elegant Greek scholar. Evidently, Paul had 
considerable learning which might have secured him respect 
among the Greeks, if in singleness of heart he had not 
determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ, 
and Him crucified. 

Having considered the temptations which the apostle had 
to corrupt the gospel; let us now direct our attention, to that 
doctrine which he resolved at all hazards to proclaim. He 
would know before them the character which Jesus Christ 
displayed in His personal history. An intimate personal 
acquaintance with the Messiah, so as to be brought under the 
transforming influence of His heavenly example, was thought 
to be so important to an apostle, that when Peter set before 
the 120 disciples, who prayerfully awaited the outpouring of 
the Holy Spirit, the qualifications of an apostle to succeed 
Judas, he insisted that he should be one who had companied 
with the disciples all the time, from the baptism of John to 
the ascension of Jesus. But Paul, who seems never to have 
seen the face of Jesus Christ till he saw Him in His trans- 
figured glory, on the journey to Damascus, had the whole 
character and history of Jesus so fully impressed on his mind, 
by special revelations that, when after a lapse of years spent 



FIRST SERMON IN HAMPTON. 99 

in preaching, he conferred with Peter, James and John, on 
the doctrine which he had preached, these pillars in the church, 
'who might well seem to be somewhat, added nothing to him 
in conference. Paul kept in view the character of Jesus 
as a man, but with all the strength of Jewish attachments, 
which could make him willing to be accursed from God for 
their sake, he knew not as a Jew ; " yea," says he, " though we 
have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know 
we Him no more." Let us study the character of Jesus to 
find a precedent, for our own conduct in every imaginable 
circumstance. We have not a master who binds for our 
shoulders burdens grievous to be borne, which He Himself will 
not touch with one of His fingers ; but one who shows the 
practicableness of His commandments, by assuming a nature 
which brought Him under law, and magnifying law and 
making it honorable. 

Paul knew only Christ as his Lawgiver. True, the 
heathen who knew not the law was a law unto himself. The 
light of nature was his only guide ; but Christ legislated on 
every subject, on which nature had given law. When the 
Sun of righteousness arose with healing in his wings, the 
starlight of nature was not left to throw its glimmer on one 
tract of duty, while the brighter luminary dispensed his beams 
on another. The latter swallowed up the former on every 
field. The minute philosopher might, if he could, adjust the 
proportion between them, as the minute astronomer may 
amuse his leisure, by inquiring how much the twinkling of 
the dogstar helps out the solar blaze. The earnest and practi- 
cal Paul would know only the all-absorbinglight. 



100 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD.LLD. 

Moses was a Divine teacher, and he is now a Divine 
teacher of great value ; but Moses was, and is, but a school- 
master to bring us to Christ ; he is but the pedagogue that 
leads on to the great Teacher and King. All the enactments 
of the old dispensation which are now binding, are condensed 
and consolidated in this revised code, though the student of 
Divine law, like the student of municipal law, may find great 
aid in interpreting the condensed code, by traveling through 
the previous enactments. The forms and ceremonies of the 
old dispensation, the shadows of good things to come, and not 
the very image of those things, taught like a pictorial primer 
what is more clearly taught, without the aid of shadows in the 
new dispensation. All of the cumbrous ceremonies of the law, 
which constituted a yoke intolerable, were substituted by 
simple ordinances — baptism and the Lord's supper — expressly 
commanded by the King in Zion. Everything in the Church 
of Christ, is fixed by His own commandment. Christ has 
given it no legislative power ; it can interpret and execute His 
laws — it can go no farther. The outer organization of the 
Christian Church, given in all its details by its Head, may not 
be so important as its inner spirit; but God who has given man 
a body suited to his soul, has given the Church a body suited 
to its spirit, and no man may alter it in anything. The 
apostle knew Christ, as his perfect example ; he knew Him as 
his absolute prince ; he knew Him as crucified for the sins of 
the world. It was this last truth, that constituted the burden 
of the apostle's preaching — Christ Crucified. 

The carnal enmity of men was called out in special fierceness 



FIEST SERMON IN HAMPTON. 101 

against this distinguishing and essential doctrine of the Gos- 
pel. The Jews anxiously longed for the advent of a prince 
possessed of every title to earthly honor, who should break in 
pieces the rod of the Koman oppressor ; and this personage 
who, as they had trusted, was to redeem Israel, had been nailed 
to the shameful cross. Such a Christ was naturally a stone of 
stumbling and rock of offence to the Jews. The Greeks felt 
a lordly contempt, for the reputed Divinity, who had ended his 
days on the cross. Their whole philosophy, most of it per- 
vaded by materialism, revolted at the resurrection of the dead, 
as contradicted by experience and abhorrent to reason. But 
this very doctrine was the only one in which Paul would 
glory. Christ was a martyr for truth. 

Whilst the common people heard Him gladly. His doctrine 
was too pure to excite great sympathy, in the mass of men of 
any generation ; and his unsparing exposures and denuncia- 
tions of spiritual weakness in high places, brought upon him 
the inexorable hate of the ruling classes. These cloaked their 
hellish purposes from others, and perhaps from themselves, 
under the guise of patriotic concern for the perpetuity of their 
place and nation, and loyalty to the government of Caesar; 
but Pilate knew that for envy, they had delivered Him. 
Christ, said of Himself, that He came forth to bear witness of 
the truth, and He truly sealed His testimony with His blood. 
But Paul saw in the crucifixion a higher truth than this. 

The first principle in his summary of the Christian faith is, 
" Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." This 
precious, fundamental truth, is again and again set forth in 



102 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

concise and naked grandeur. Paul does not invite the tears 
of hearers or readers, by theatrical representations of a Saviour 
treading in Gethsemane the winepress of the wrath of God 
alone. He alludes not to the traitorous kiss, and the uplifted 
heel of the familiar friend. He paints not the dark scowl of 
the midnight inquisitors, ravening for blood. He excites no in- 
dignation against the fickle multitude that greeted the Messiah 
with hosannas to-day, and were set on to cry, " Away with 
Him," to-morrow. He forbears to scourge with a scorpion lash, 
the time-serving politician who acknowledged, and as far as 
he might quietly, contended that Jesus was guiltless, and was 
still willing to content the fiendish appetite of the populace 
with innocent blood. He does not detain our attention on the 
gory cross, the rude spikes, the crown of thorns, the intolera- 
ble thirst and all the horrible details of that grand tragedy, 
which might have held angels and devils in breathless atten- 
tion. No, he did not ask sinners to weep over the sufferings 
of the man of sorrows ; over which many sinners have wept 
at the prompting of natural sympathy, whilst they were still 
in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity ; and 
whilst they would not have the man Christ Jesus to reign 
over them. No, it was the sacrificial character of the Saviour's 
death, that was its important feature in the eyes of the 
apostle. To collate all the texts in the epistles of Paul, which 
directly assert or clearly imply the vicarious nature of a 
Saviour's death, would be to transcribe a large portion of 
these writings. And well may it occupy so nmch space, for 
it supports and involves every other truth in the gospel. Did 



FIRST SERMON IN HAMPTON. 103 

Christ lead an irreproachable life — it was that He might die a 
lamb without spot or blemish. Is Christ our king — His title- 
deed rests not simply on a natural and easy inheritance. His 
revolted empire was to be redeemed from mortgage to the law 
of God, demanding the eternal death of every one of His 
subjects. He hath bought us with His own blood, shed 
on Calvary. The doctrine of Christ Crucified, involves the 
original and total depravity of the human race. The offering 
of Christ on Calvary had been a grand, but empty pageant, if 
man had been an innocent being. Well might it be asked on 
this supposition, whence all this waste? Starting from the 
doctrine of inherent sin, the mind is shut up in hopeless 
despair, till the rainbow of promise, inscribed Christ Crucified, 
spans the dark cloud of divine wrath. Well may the Uni- 
tarian and the Universalist, who have healed slightly the 
disease of their people, because they have never probed its 
depths, deny the divinity of Christ, and the vicariousness of 
His suffering. But he whose conscience has responded to the 
dark picture of both Jews and Gentiles, drawn by Paul in the 
first part of the epistle to the Romans, will feel that he needs 
in God, manifest in the flesh, a Saviour able to save to the 
uttermost, all who come to God by him. The doctrine of 
Christ crucified for sin, is the truth which the Holy Spirit uses 
in the conversion, and sanctification of our natures. Thus, to 
preach Christ, is to preach the necessity of regeneration ; it is 
to exhibit the only name, given under heaven among men, 
whereby we can be saved. It is to hold up Christ as com- 
manding every duty, whether moral or ceremonial, to urge as 



104 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

the great motive to obedience, the love of Christ, which con- 
straiueth us ; then to preach Christ Crucified, is to preach 
the entire gospel. The text might seem to be designed as 
a directory to the minister of the gospel — and you may 
naturally inquire, why make it the basis of a sermon? I 
reply, that in the first place, it afforded me as good an oppor- 
tunity as I could find, to proclaim that gospel which the text 
binds me to declare. Secondly, it is proper that I should 
indicate on the authority of the Scriptures, the principles 
which ought to guide me in my ministrations among you. 
So that the Church, the highest ecclesiastical authority, may 
be the better prepared to hold me to a strict accountability 
for the proper discharge of my ofl[ice. But lastly and chiefly, 
I shall be the better prepared to preach the gospel, when the 
Church is determined to countenance and sustain the pure 
gospel. 

It is almost incalculable to what extent pastor and people 
mutually affect each other. We are all creatures of sympathy. 
We feel an instinctive and almost irresistible disposition to 
adapt ourselves to the views and tastes of those, with whom we 
associate. AVe do it unconsciously. The people will find it 
diflJicult to resist the continual droppings of heresy or formalism 
from the pulpit. The preacher, when he finds that the simple 
gospel is not acceptable to his people, will be tempted to begin, 
before he knows it, to preach to them another gospel. I am 
the more solicitous to impress this trutli, because I fear that 
with all the outward prosperity of the church and with all the 
improvement in the machinery of her benevolent operations, 



FIEST SERMON IN HAMPTON. 105 

the gospel is losing its liold upon tlie hearts of the people. 
Men will hear the gospel now, if it is done up in a way to suit 
their fastidious tastes. If, at the suggestion of a new order of 
medical practitioners, you administer very small, infinitesimal 
doses of the gospel, mixed with other inert and often neutral- 
izing elements, they will hear it. Brethren, that is no healthy, 
moral, religious appetite that cannot relish plain food without 
the admixture of tempting condiments. Men may love able 
discourses, eloquent discourses, splendid declamations ; but if 
we come before them, with the plain, robust gospel of the apostle, 
they will not receive it. Let Jesus come to His own in His 
gospel and His own receive Him not ; these are the wounds 
which He receives in the house of His friends. Men think 
they need something more practical than the doctrinal preach- 
ing of Christ Crucified. Never was there a greater mistake. 
The New Testament is full of practical duties, but all connected 
with the Cross, — all utilized by this head and this heart, and 
to preach them apart from it, is as absurd as to dissever the 
running-gear of a machine from the motive power. We may 
have a beautiful, well-articulated system of morals, but we 
might as well attempt to move the machinery of a steam engine 
with the smith's bellows, as attempt to animate them without 
motives drawn from the spirit-world. The doctrine of Christ 
Crucified is really adapted to the wants of saints and of sin- 
ners. What convinces one of sin, is what abases the other 
still more in humility. What encourages the one to trust for 
the first time, is what builds up the other, in his most holy 
faith. Witness the result in well conducted protracted meet- 

G 



106 LIFE OF A. B. BKOWN, DD. LLD. 

iDgs, where the gospel is preached, as perhaps it ought to be 
on other occasions. Do Christians ever seem to grow more in 
the divine life, than under appliances specially designed for 
the unconverted ? But finally, to preach Christ Crucified, 
would necessitate sameness and monotony in our discourses. 
Perhaps it may in the estimation of the natural man, uho dis 
cerneth not the things, of the Spirit. To the necessary limita- 
tion of our scope, we would, however, cheerfully submit. Still 
our theme is rich. Angels desire to look into the great 
my.stery of godliness. Saints in heaven will find unceasing 
themes in the length and breadth and depth of redeeming love. 

A few colors present all the various tints of the landscape. 
A few elements in their protean forms of combination make 
up the almost infinite variety of separate existence. A few 
truths animated all the varied epistles of Paul : a few senti- 
ments the multiform Psalms of David. Besides, we must 
continue to study this subject. No teacher will interest his 
pupils, who is not prosecuting inquiries in the branch in which 
he teaches. Even Paul is constantly extending his knowledge. 
He tells us in his epistles that he counted not himself to have 
attained. There were untrodden heights which he was eager 
to scale. He was laboring to know Christ, and the power of 
His resurrection. 

With similar zeal I hope to do something to interest you. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 107 



• CHAPTER YI. 

HIS WOEK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 

rriHE political agitation that culminated in the 
-^ war between the States, was preceded in Vir- 
ginia by an era of unusual mental activity — and 
this was the legitimate outcome of the marked 
prosperity of the country. Next to liberty, edu- 
cation was considered the highest boon of an 
American citizen. Primary schools, and Academies 
and Institutes were springing up all over the 
country. Richmond, Hampden — Sydney, William 
and Mary, Washington, and Randolph, — Macon, 
Colleges, took on new equipments, and yearly 
poured into the State University, scores of gifted 
young men. 

Not only from Virginia, but from almost every 
State in the Union, came students to this noble 
Institution of learning. At that time it was 
in the fulness of its glory. Its matriculates 
numbered over six hundred annually. No other 
University South, competed with it, in patronage 
or scholarship. Its Commencements, on the 29th 
of June, drew together great crow^ds of the friends 



108 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

of learning from this, and other states as well. 
One of the finest addresses to which the writer 
ever listened — in point of impassioned eloquence 
and of popular power — was delivered 29th of June, 
1860, by Hon. Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana, who was 
then the orator of the Literary Societies. 

Charlottesville, the seat of the University, was 
then appropriately styled the Athens of America, 
if any town, outside of Boston, could justly wear 
such a title. The very atmosphere of the place 
was literary. Society, politics, and religion re- 
ceived the intellectual stamp. Besides several 
prosperous preparatory schools, there were two 
large Institutes in the town, in flourishing condi- 
tion : the Episcopal and the Baptist. The latter 
established mainly by such liberal hearted Baptists 
of the town, as Wm. P. Farish, A. P. Abell, the 
Randolphs, the Bibbs, and others. The Principal 
of the Institute w^as Prof. John Hart, wdio had 
graduated from the University, with the degree of 
M. A. Avith distinguished honors. He aimed to 
make it as far as possible, for females, what the 
University was for the males. The members of 
his Faculty, were nearly all M. A.'s of the Univer- 
sity, and the subjects taught and text books used 
in many of the schools, were the same. The grade 
of scholarship, and extent of its curriculum Avas 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 109 

not excelled by any female institution, in the land. 
In the year 1859 the Charlottesville Church called 
Mr. Brown to be its pastor ; coupled with the call 
was an invitation from Prof. Hart, to fill the chair 
of Moral Philosophy in his Institute. He accepted, 
and entered on his work in November, of that year. 
The following, is Prof. Hart's estimate of his 
pastor and co-laborer : 

" In undertaking to furnish some reminiscences 
of A. B. Brown's pastorate at Charlottesville, I 
undertake, rather a difficult task. My relations 
with him, were very cordial and intimate — and to 
me, perhaps, as much as to any, he revealed his 
inner self. But the interest of such recollec- 
tions depends very greatly, on striking, personal 
incidents. Such incidents either were few, or 
in collision with subsequent agitations, they have 
been worn from remembrance. Hence, some are 
entirely lost — others so indistinctly remembered, 
that to attempt reproduction, was a peril to truth. 

" Dr. Brown assumed the pastoral office in 
Charlottesville in November, 1859. In that office 
he succeeded Dr. John A. Broadus, who had taken 
a chair, in the newly established Seminary at 
Greenville. To succeed Broadus was no light 
thing, and Brown fully appreciated the difficulty. 



110 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Really he exaggerated it. He feared that the 
marked difference between his modes of thought, 
and his modes of presenting thought, and those of 
his predecessor, would make him fail to engage the 
interest of the congregation. Pie did not suffi- 
ciently consider that that very difference, was a 
factor in his favor. And so he began his work 
with some trepidation. For a time, he was not 
enough at his ease to do himself justice. 

" But when the feeling of constraint wore away 
— ^^vhen he knew that he had the ear and the 
sympathy of the thinking part of his audience, 
the abounding riches of his intellectual and spirit- 
ual nature poured themselves forth in a series of 
sermons, many of which yet live in my memory 
as unmatched. Hardly a year has passed since, 
without witness to my debt to him. When I 
have tried to set forth with some completeness of 
discussion, an important doctrine of Christianity, 
I have been surprised to see, with what distinct- 
ness the struggle of thought brings up what I at 
once recognize as a residuum of the teaching of 
A. B. Brown. And w^hen the struggle has so 
issued, I have felt that I was nearing the inner 
truth of the matter — that I had fallen into the 
path of one whose thinking went to the marrow 
of things. 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. Ill 

" At that time I was at the head of the Albe- 
marle Female Institute. In this school for years 
I had the aid of first-rate men, of whom all that 
now live have won distinction in their chosen 
pursuits. Bronaugh and Thompson, fell in battle ; 
Louthan died of consumption; Toy, Harris, Holla- 
day, Johnson, Hiden and Semple still live, and 
the world knows them. It does not become me 
to say what, but for the ruin wrought by war, 
might have been the place of that school in the 
work of the real education of women, nor to point 
out in the ideas and methods now dominant in 
many of our best schools the evident traces of its 
brief career. I may, I hope, without suspicion of 
vanity, record a fact. For the second session, 
with the assistance of Dr. Toy, I organized a well 
digested course of study in the English language, 
in which should be applied to our own tongue, the 
latest and best methods and results of linguistic 
science. When I say that C. H. Toy managed 
the course of study for that session the well 
informed reader, can give a guess as to the quality 
of the work. The * School of English,' thus 
organized was, so far as I know, the beginning in 
this direction. Now such a ^school' is found in 
almost every college in the country. An'd if 
many of them — as there is reason to fear — are but 



112 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

sorry schools of Saxon, rather than good schools 
of English, the fault is not with the pioneers of 
the movement, but with teachers w^lio do not 
understand their business. 

"Dr. Brow^n taught the Moral Philosophy course 
in the Institute during the session of 1860-61. 
Every capable man w^io knew him recognized his 
remarkable fitness for just this w^ork. Metaphysics 
was his mind's native element. Women are usually 
thought to be disinclined to the severe logical pro- 
cess, pertinent to this subject. But Dr. Brown's 
class caught his own enthusiasm. My ow^n engage- 
ments hardly ever allowed me to be present at the 
recitations, but I remember very clearly how often 
the teachings in that class, became the subject of 
eager and intelligent discussion among its members, 
during their intervals of leisure. I have said that 
Brown's mind w^as metaphysical. He delighted in 
speculative thought. In this, he stands in marked 
contrast with another of noble powers and of 
noble life — one who was long the recognized 
leader of the Baptists of Virginia. Dr. Jeter 
was singularly free from all tendency to specula- 
tive thought ; and while it Avould be unsafe to say 
that such an intellect as his, lacked that power, 
the •power was held in perpetual abeyance. 

" Not many months after Dr. Brown's coming to 



HIS WOEK IN CHAELOTTESVILLE. 113 

Charlottesville, were the beginnings of the agita- 
tion that culminated in secession and war. To 
the exciting questions of that time, he carried his 
characteristic thinking. He was not an ' original 
secessionist.' The impassioned and scholarly ora- 
tory of Holcombe, while it yielded him intense 
artistic delight, did not convince his judgment; 
not until the actual secession of the State did he 
let go his allegiance to Federal authority. And 
then to do so cost him a struggle. His early 
political views, combined with deep reverence for 
the teachings of inspiration concerning obedience 
' to powers that be,' made him question if it were 
not sin to throw off authority, that he had held 
as paraihount. He carefully reviewed the whole 
question of the relations between the State and 
the Federal Government, and reached a conclusion. 
The result was a sermon from the words : ' Kender 
therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's,' 
in which, with a keenness of logic that would not 
have discredited a Calhoun, he showed that the 
immediate Csesar of the people of Virginia, is the 
State of Virginia, and that the conscientious Chris- 
tian may follow her voice even if it does not con- 
cur with the voice from Washington. And this, 
so far as I remember, was the only sermon from 
him, even in those distracting times, that with 



114 LIFE OF A. B. HllOWN, DD. LLD. 

color of reason could be called political. In 
another, soon after tlie first battles were fought, he 
sketched a battle field during the progress of the 
fight, and after the carnage was over. It was only 
a rapid sketch, but in vividness and in realistic 
power, neither voice nor pen has given me any- 
thing finer. 

" I have said that Brown soon won the attention 
and full sympathy of the cultured and thinking 
people who heard him. But a very large number 
of the Church and congregation never so far 
attained his level as to walk with him on it witli 
pleasure and profit. Hence his pastorate in Char- 
lottesville was not what would be called in modern 
parlance, ' a success.' It ended by his resignation 
near the end of 1861. 

" Allusion has been made to the barrenness of 
entertaining personal incidents, at least in my 
recollection. Such as I do remember were mainly 
connected with what was sometimes called his ner- 
vous irritability — a peculiarity which no man la- 
mented more than himself as a serious obstacle in 
the path to usefulness. I do not believe it was ner- 
vous irritability. It was old-fashioned, downright 
anger — anger which for a moment swept every- 
thing before it — to be followed soon by the keenest 
regret. The locomotive, were it a being of intel- 



HIS WOEK IN CHAKLOTTESVILLE. 115 

lect and feeling, would doubtless exult as it speeds 
along carrying its ponderous and precious freight ; 
but it would quiver with indignant wrath, if some 
malapert engineer should suddenly pull the revers- 
ing bar. So with Brown. The rude current of 
the tide of thought, driving from the field of his 
mind its busy occupants, made him quiver with 
an indignation that at once spent itself on the 
obvious arresting cause. And this I think was 
substantially his own view of the matter, for he 
once told me that his outbursts were not confined 
to public occasions. Sometimes, in the quiet of 
his study, when his whole being was intent on an 
absorbing train of thought, the casual entrance 
of any one, with an innocent question about 
dinner, wrought the same stormy reaction. This 
was a weakness in Dr. Brown, but a weakness 
that was a token of strength. So, sometimes, a 
splendid physical nature so fights against disease 
that its ravages are hardly discernible, until the 
disease becomes victor and the man falls suddenly 
dead. The suddenness and completeness of the 
collapse testify the strenuousness of resistance. In 
his later years Dr. Brown had, I think, become the 
master. When his election to the chair of English 
in the College was announced, I felt but one appre- 
hension. His admirable qualifications in all re- 



116 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

spects as to scholarship and teaching power — and 
withal his sensible views as to what teaching 
English is — I well knew. But I did fear that a 
college class might re-instate his old tyrant. That 
it did not is proof that he had become master. 

'' In the various notices of Dr. Brown, much has 
been said about the qualities of his mind. Nobody, 
so far as I have noticed, has emphasized his most 
striking gift. This was imagination. I do not 
mean the decorative fancy that makes forays into 
other people's gardens to gather the few flowers 
that may serve to disguise the poverty at home. 
I mean imagination in its highest function — the 
personifying function. His mind was a battle- 
field. Ideas were living things — warriors in pano- 
ply, that charged and recoiled and charged again, 
until at last the false were driven in rout from 
the field. No one who has heard him often, no 
one who has read attentively what he wrote, can 
fail, I think, to recognize this power. Many a 
time he has reminded me of Milton, and more 
nearly than any other whom I have personally 
known he approached Milton in imaginative power. 

" In person, A. B. Brown was not handsome. Tall, 
lean, limber, and singularly given to acute angles 
in gesticulation, he was yet a remarkable consis- 
tency. The ponderous, rugged, and stimulating 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 117 

thoughts he was wont to throw out, could never 
have suited a pulpit Chesterfield. Yery soon his 
hearers felt the subtle harmony that bound up the 
man, the manner of the man, and his thoughts 
into one unique whole — to the integrity of which 
one part then seemed as essential as another. But 
a.stranger was surely pardonable, whose attention 
was mainly attracted for a time, to the sensible 
rather than the intellectual. 

" It may be doubted, whether Dr. Brown's criti- 
cal powers, were up to the measure of his general 
ability. A Butler may tell of plenty of wit with 
excessive shyness in using it. The two things 
are not usually together. But if Dr. Brown had 
the critical gift, he was very shy in using it, at 
least in the censorious way. I doubt if any man 
ever heard him make a harsh comment on the 
sermon of a brother preacher. Occasionally, when 
some one else occupied his pulpit, he was ever a 
patient and interested listener, and very commonly 
almost enthusiastic in commendation — and this, 
sometimes, when I was obliged to confess that I 
had been bored. Either his amiability led him to 
repress any tendency to severity of stricture, or 
his idea of the purpose of preaching made him 
think well of any sermon that put before the 
people, the real doctrines of the Gospel, however 



118 LIFE OF A. B. DROWN, DD. LLD. 

defective it was in logical and literary merit. I 
know that his deep kindliness of feeling, made him 
a most lenient judge of the work of a friend. 

" A very noble man is lost. Within a certain 
narrow circle, the loss cannot be supplied. But 
on the wide field of general activity, no single man 
is an absolute necessity. The best and noblest 
fall, and the vacant places cannot, we think, be 
filled. But others are called forth who take up 
the fallen mantles and carry forward well and 
worthily, the interrupted work. In that narrow, 
inner circle, the loss is irreparable. There the sym- 
pathy of surviving friends counts for much. The 
true consolation, is the patient and thoughtful 
w^aiting for the time of reunion. 

"John Hart." 

The following extract is from "A Pupil's Tri- 
bute," by the author, that appeared in the Biblical 
Eecorder, of Raleigh, N. C, a few days after his 
death : 

"In the years of '60 and '61 I sat under his 
teaching in the class of Moral Philosophy in the 
Albemarle Female Institute, Ya. At that time 
he was pastor of the church at Charlottesville. 
Those who sat under his ministry there, will bear 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 119 

me out in saying that his sermons were marked 
by extraordinary power. The subjects treated 
were frequently on the line of those studied in 
the class. Professors of the University and the 
more thoughtful of the students came often to 
hear him. There was much in the appreciation 
and responsiveness of his audience to stimulate 
him. 

"It was then that Prof. John Hart, the dis- 
tinguished educator, was at the head of a Faculty 
composed of that bright galaxy of Virginia alumnse 
of the University, as Prof H. H. Harris, C. H. 
Toy, Wm. P. Louthan, Walter Holliday, Yt^m. 
Bronaugh, Thompson, and J. C. Hiden. But for 
the desolations of war, the broad reaching plans 
of its Principal would have made long ere this 
the Albemarle Institute, the foremost female col- 
lege of the South. I doubt whether any chair was 
ever more ably filled in this country, than was 
the one filled by Dr. Brown. He was in the full 
vigor of his manhood. Philosophy was his fa- 
vorite study. His restless mind roved rampant 
over the fields of thought, culling flowers at every 
turn. He read, he compiled, he condensed, that 
he might give to his pupils the benefit of his own 
research. It was only a class of girls he taught, 
but he did not think them unworthy of his best 



120 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

efforts. One of that number, our own loved Lottie 
Moon, is a missionary to China, and others have 
become distinguished teachers. 

" When he appeared before the class, and began 
to lecture, he became fired with his subject and 
unconsciously communicated the magnetic thrill 
to his students. It was impossible not to feel the 
contagious power of his intellect. The subjects 
studied might be metaphysical and difficult, but 
his mind illumined them with the brilliancy of his 
own setting, till they glowed and sparkled with 
ineffable beauty. He so loved the truth and Hhe 
search after the truth,' that whether in a Jouffroy, 
a Cousin, or a Sir William Hamilton, or any other, 
he so led on his students by the magic power of 
his own enthusiasm, as to excite a hungering and 
thirsting after knowledge that was undying. He 
knew what it w^as to teach, and magnified his 
office by the love of it." 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 121 



A POKTION OF A SERMON DELIVERED IN 
CHARLOTTESVILLE. 



" Ye know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was 
rich, for your sakes. He became poor, that ye through His poverty might 
be made rich." — 2 Corinth, viii. 9. 

The contemplation of the grace of God in Christ, is calcu- 
lated to cultivate in those who have been renewed by the 
Spirit, two eminent Christian graces, gratitude to God, and 
benevolence to men. Thankfulness, is excited by a considera- 
tion of the gift to ourselves, and benevolence, by reflection on 
the example of the giver. On last Sunday, in a discourse 
on the text, "We love Him, because He first loved us," we 
appealed to the first of these affections ; but you will see from 
the connection, that the doctrine of our present text was 
presented in an appeal to the latter. The Apostle John makes 
a similar appeal when he exclaims, " Hereby perceive we the 
love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we 
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." 

Without laboring on this occasion to point the moral of the 
text, I shall endeavor to unfold the proposition, from which 
the apostle deduces it as an inference. I think that I shall 
Bhow the meaning of this proposition by substituting for it 

H 



122 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

these three propositions, which taken together are equivalent 
to it: 1st, Jesus was in one period of His life, rich ; 2cl, Strange 
to say, at a subsequent period He became poor; 3d, The object 
of this voluntary assumption of poverty was, that His people 
might be rich. These propositions, I shall discuss in the order 
in which I have announced them. 

The first proposition considered in connection with the 
New Testament history, clearly involves the superhuman 
character of Jesus Christ. For His state of richness must, 
according to the history, have been antecedent to His assump- 
tion of humanity. In no period of Christ's earthly career was 
He rich. If the Unitarian alleges that the Messiah's riches, 
consisted in His power of working miracles, which power He 
laid on the cross, we deny that He ever thus impoverished 
Himself. Had He not the power of miraculously saving His 
life from His crucifiers? He declares Himself, "No man 
taketh My life from Me, I have power to lay it down, and I 
have power to take it again." He could have summoned twelve 
legions of angels to crush His murderers. The Eedeemer 
did not on the cross, about the close of His career, alter 
the principles which had before regulated His working of 
miracles. Did He refuse to amuse Herod, by the exercise 
of His supernatural power? He had always refused to degrade 
His glorious endowment, by doing wonders for the gratifica- 
tion of sightseers. Whenever, from curiosity, an evil genera- 
tion sought after a sign, He determined that no sign should 
be given it. Did Jesus refuse to do anything to save 
Himself from the cross? It is a most interesting, and most 



SERMON IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 123 

characteristic feature in His history, that He never wrought 
any miracle for Himself. He fed five thousand with a few 
loaves and fishes, but though He fasted forty days. He would 
not at the suggestion of Satan, save Himself from pinching 
hunger, by commanding a stone to become bread. He would 
enable Peter to walk to Him on the water, but He w^ould not 
cast Himself down from a pinnacle of the Temple, that the 
angels might give themselves charge concerning Him. I 
repeat, that Jesus made no change in relation to miracles on 
the cross. The riches of Christ here alluded to, must have 
been, what He possessed before He came into the world. He 
was rich, before He came into the world. He was above the 
angels. Yea, He created the highest archangels, for without 
Him, was not anything made that was made. This explains 
that He Himself, was not created. He possessed excellencies 
to which nothing could be added, for in His superhuman 
character, He is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Now, 
this involves His inferiority to men and angels, if He is less 
than infinite, for both men and angels have, according to the 
Scriptures, the power of indefinite progression, and would ulti- 
mately surpass Him. But nothing more is necessary for our 
present purpose, than the fact, that He was in the beginning 
with God, and that He was God. 

If then God is rich, Jesus Christ the express image of His 
Father's person, full of truth and grace, was also rich. We 
may not assume to take an inventory of the riches of God. 
The riches of God are infinite, and the finite cannot fathom 
the infinite. All conceivable riches, riches of power, riches 



124 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

of wisdom, riches of holiness, riches of glory, riches of happi- 
ness are His forever, and in unbounded fulness. 

The highest efforts of our power, are put forth on matter 
and mind, which we can neither create nor destroy. By the 
word of His power. He called out of utter nothing, all the 
forms of matter and all the gradations of intellectual and 
sentient existence. We act by availing ourselves of the laws 
of nature, by making ourselves the obedient servants of His 
law. He made all the laws of matter and of mind. We are 
stewards and tenants at will, of our so called possessions. He 
is the absolute owner. Our wealth is but a prospective supply 
for the wants of the body. The all pervading and illimitable 
spirit, intimately present in all things, knows no want, feels 
no desire. We are often worn down by the cares, and per- 
plexed by the multiplicity of the engagements which wealth 
imposes ; and kings harassed to torture by exhausting anxie- 
ties, cry out in anguish of spirit, 'Uneasy lies the head that 
wears the crown." But the real and ultimate owner of all 
wealth, the monarch of an infinite empire, in whose audience 
chamber, innumerable waiting angels receive their commis- 
sions and render their reports, now manages all the vast and 
divine plans, all the minute and amazingly complex details of 
His boundless system, with all the freshness and vigor which 
characterized His administration, when first the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for glory. He 
is rich in powers. His voice created matter ; His breath 
created spirit. 

The ocean that swallows in its greed, the fleets of merchant 



SERMON IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 125 

princes, and the navies of kings, dares not push a ripple 
beyond His appointed bounds. Revelling winds ravaging 
whole provinces in their mad spirit, crouch like chidden 
spaniels at His feet. And mad comets in all their seeming 
eccentricity of movement, move like well appointed trains 
across the tracks of revolving worlds without venturing a 
collision. 

He is rich in wisdom. Let all architects admire the skill 
of Hiram, the chief under whose superintendence the materials 
of Solomon's temple — came from the quarries and the forests 
of Lebanon, so squared and so fitted, that on that beautiful 
building no hammer might sound. But let a Universe admire 
the skill, of the great architect, so working in darkness, the 
quarry of nonentity, brought forth every atom without mark 
and without label, and fixed it instantly in the symmetrical 
fabric of universal nature. No whispered treason, can escape 
Him ; no open rebellion can surprise Him ; He makes the 
wrath of man and the wrath of devils to praise Him. 

Devils rebelled. He had foreseen it, and had determined 
to make it the occasion, on which many angels should feel, 
and all angels should see the majesty of justice. He had 
foreknown it, and had purposed to thwart the fiend, by show- 
ing Himself on this occasion, in the otherwise impossible atti- 
tude of a God, whose mercy endureth forever. We must 
cease to gaze upon the efiiilgence of that Being who dwells in 
light unapproachable, and to whom still the darkness shineth 
as the light — whose unfailing memory is the perfect record 
from which shall be judged the secrets of all hearts in a 



12G LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

coming day, and before whose all-seeing eye the future of 
every being looms up in infinite perspective. 

He is rich in glory. Our wealth may secure us a little 
honor, and much show of respect where thrift may follow 
fawning. But He is rich in the freewill homage of all pure 
beings, and richer still, in His sufficiency for Himself. He 
needs not the worship of man, nor of angels, to add to His 
glory. What must have been the conceptions of that glory, 
"which Christ had with Him before the world was ? 

He is rich in holiness. The devout astronomer, like Newton, 
whilst gazing on the sublimity of nature, will exclaim, "Mar- 
vellous are Thy works Lord God Almighty." The saint contem- 
plating the scheme of redemption is induced to exalt the riches 
of the grace of God. But the unfallen beings of the upper 
world regard the holiness of God, as the Kohinoor diamond in 
His crown. " Cherubim and Seraphim continually sing Holy, 
Holy Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth, are full of 
the majesty of thy glory." God is infinitely happy. When 
the whole creation, passed in review before Him, He pronounced 
it very good. There was happiness, in this approbation, of His 
works. He has made all nature, beauty to the eye and music 
to the ear. Shall He that formed the eye not see this beauty? 
Shall he that made the ear, not hear this music? or is He 
fated to be the only intelligent being who shall see and hear 
without delight. Away with the thought. The Centre and 
Source of all happiness must be infinite'y happy. If it is 
more blessed to give than to receive, what must be the happi- 
ness of that Being whose benefactions, like tlie rays of the sun. 



SERMON IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 127 

are continually going forth, never to return but in the clouds 
of incense which they raise. 

This great almoner of the skies, whom giving could not 
impoverish, was ever opening His hand, and supplying the 
wants of every living thing, was ever enjoying the true luxury 
of wealth, the luxury of doing good. When we consider the 
riches of this Great Being, well may we say to Him, in the 
language of David, " What is man, that thou art mindful of 
him, and the son of man that thou didst visit him, yet for 
our sakes He became poor." 

II. We do not learn from the Scriptures that Jesus Christ 
abased all His glories, and parted with all His riches when 
He was manifested in the flesh. We learn in fact the direct 
contrary. Jesus Christ as the second person in the Trinity, 
exercised in the universe ; all the powers of Deity, all the pro- 
cesses of nature, moved on during His incarnation, as they had 
from the beginning, yea, even on this battle-field. 

The Captain of our Salvation, travailed in the greatuess of 
His strength. The winds and the waves He spoke, as before, 
into instant stillness. At His rebuke, the fig tree was scathed 
as by the lightning of heaven. No malady baffled the skill 
of the all-healing physician. No lunacy resisted the charm 
of Him, that loved to minister to the mind diseased. All con- 
quering death, released at His command, putrefying vic- 
tims, and routed devils slunk to hell from His presence. 
Jesus was in some sense still rich. He did not relinquish or 
forfeit that holiness, which challenges on Galilean plains, the 
worship of a whole multitude of the heavenly host ; and most 



128 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

certainly He did not, when He came forth to seek and to save 
the lost, relinquish the riches of His grace. He did abate the 
lustre of His glory. He did become poor in His condition 
and in His humiliation. 

Whilst Jesus Christ was in the flesh — it is legitimate to 
infer, that He confined the range of His seen and recognized 
action, within the sphere of His bodily presence. He per- 
formed no deed on earth, of which He received the honor, 
save where His body was. What an immeasurable abatement 
of His glory. The light lighted every man that came into 
the world, but amidst the clouds of ignorance and prejudice, 
the world saw not whence came the light, and glorified it not. 
The light shone in darkness, and the darkness comprehended 
it not. AVhether during the hour of the Messiah's humilia- 
tion, the throne of the second person in the Trinity was 
shrouded so that the majesty of glory shone not out to the 
heavenly inhabitants, we may not know now. But we do 
know that His glory was not fully appreciated, by His own 
few followers, till after His resurrection from the dead. The 
intimate union of the Divine and human natures in the person 
of Christ, so that there might be a close sympathy between 
them, and so that our great High Priest might be touched 
with a feeling of our infirmities, was an amazing stoop of 
condescension. Think of the degradation, that would result 
to your spirit, by encasing it in the body of a reptile. Think 
of the humiliation of that, spirit by intimate union and com- 
munion, with whatever of spirit the reptile might possess. 
And then aj)preciate if you can, the luimi/iation which the 



SERMON IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 129 

great Creator sustained, when He was found in fashion as a 
man. But in the Saviour's infinite descent from the court of 
heaven, He did not stop at the upper strata of human society, 
He did not content Himself with stooping to the poor condi- 
tion of man, but He farther descended to the condition of a 
poor man. And oh, how poor ! Many a queen had desired 
to be His nursing mother. But He reclines His infant head 
upon the bosom of a Galilean peasant woman. The roar of 
one hundred and one guns, and the acclamations of all Paris, 
hailed the birth of the son of Napoleon. Jesus made His 
unhonored advent, among the beasts of the stall (quotation 
here from the infant's hymn, " Soft and easy is the cradle.") 
The wealthy of His day, made their costly offerings for their 
first born. Mary, more grateful than any other mother, could 
only offer a couple of pigeons or turtle doves. Whilst He 
prosecuted His ministry. He lived by the charity of His fol- 
lowers, generally themselves poor. He had not a penny on 
earth with which to pay even the temple taxes. A roving 
missionary of the cross, would indeed be in a pitiable condi- 
tion if he had no place which he could call his own, and in 
which he might talk undisturbed with his anxious inquirers ; 
but when one of Jesus' hearers attracted by the sweetness 
and purity of His doctrine, afiSrmed that he would follow Him 
whithersoever He went, the Saviour replied, "The foxes have 
their holes, the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son 
of man hath not where to rest his head." When on the cross 
His heart filled with the great concern of human redemption, 
was for a moment saddened by the condition of His bereaved 



1 30 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

and needy mother, lie could fix on her no annuity, no pen- 
sion. He made His will, but in it He could only lay under 
contribution the affection of His most faithful and attached 
disciple, establishing a new and sacred union between them 
by saying, "John, let my mother be your mother! Mother, 
let my friend be your son." Yea, His body could be buried 
in no ancestral vault, it rested in the new tomb of Joseph of 
Arimathea — honored be His name ! Not only was He poor, 
but treated with great contempt and indignity, throughout all 
His recorded life. He was contemptuously expelled from the 
synagogues as unworthy of a place among His people ; if one 
who had been healed by Him, dared to i3lead that it was 
strange, that if Jesus was a sinner He could have opened the 
eyes of the blind, he was roughly rebuked for his presump- 
tion, and summarily excommunicated. He never enjoyed the 
advantages of extended human learning for His human spirit, 
and those who attended His ministry were generally among 
the poor and the despised. Judge my hearers, if a professed 
minister of Jesus Christ, could heap ridicule on the head of 
Dr. Carey, the missionary to Hindoostan, as a consecrated 
cobbler, what must have been the scorn of haughty Rabbis 
and Pharisees, for Him who taught a doctrine not learned 
in the schools ? Why, it was of such that Jesus says Himself, 
" They called the master of the house Beelzebub." How poor 
and despised the man who can have no peace and no respect 
in his own family. Yet Jesus was treated as a madman by 
His own brethren according to the flesh. Respectable men 
like Nicodemus, it would seem, did not dare to visit in the day- 



SEEMON IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 131 

time, but visited Him as men would now, a despised fortune- 
teller, at night. If on one occasion His followers would honor 
Him with a triumphal procession into Jerusalem, His appear- 
ance was so humble, the procession so lowly, as well might 
excite the derision of the proud. So ruined seemed the 
fortunes of Jesus that one of His most cherished followers felt 
so much ashamed of Him, that he swore bitterly that he knew 
nothing of Him ; especially during His last hours. How 
deep was His humiliation. He was publicly scourged. He 
was crowned with a hastily made mock-crown, clothed with 
the mock habiliments of royalty, and made to sway, for the 
amusement of the bystanders, a reed for His sceptre. He 
was taunted, amidst His agonies by priests wagging their 
heads and saying, " He saved others. Himself He cannot 
save." He was reviled by thieves. My hearers, the hour of 
death, an hour of deep sympathy, the hour of public execution 
is an hour of silent pity for the meanest. I hesitate not to say 
that if a murderer in our land, were treated on the gallows 
with a tithe of the insult heaped on Jesus, the man who dared 
to do it, would be torn in pieces by the honest indignation of 
the mob. (An effective allusion was here made in Charlottes- 
ville, to the kind treatment of John Brown in his trial.) Yet, 
men of like passions with you and me, so treated my Lord 
and your Lord. Well might angels have exclaimed on this 
sad humiliation, " How is the mighty fallen." 

Jesus in His humiliation was also deeply sorrowful. The 
word of God represents Him as a man of sorrows. I know 
the sorrows of His heart have never been written. He came 



132 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

to wipe away the tears of others, not to ask their sym- 
pathy. The daughters of Jerusalem mourned, but Jesus said, 
"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me." He breathed 
His sorrows at night into the ear of Heaven. Once we over- 
hear Him in Gethsemane, utter a whole volume of sorrow in 
the exclamation, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto 
death." 

III. But why this poverty? He became poor that we might 
be rich ; rich in the graces which He never laid aside, rich 
in the glories which He did lay aside for us. He impover- 
ished Himself to pay our debts, and to end with an exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory. Yea, to give in the earnest of 
the Spirit a foretaste of heaven. Well may the saints exclaim, 
when considering His inheritance, " How vast the treasures 
we possess :" 

" How vast the treasures we possess, 
How rich Thy bounty, king of grace, 
This world is ours, and worlds to come, 
Earth is our lodge and heaven our home." 

[As usual, the manuscript of this sermon is 
imperfect. It does not contain the discussion of 
his third proposition. Such as it is, I venture to 
give it as a sample of his earlier sermons.] 

The personal reminiscences of Dr. J. B. Taylor, 
the scholarly pastor of Lexington, Ya., published 
below, refer to his life in Charlottesville, and will 
come in appropriately here : 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 133 

"Among the pleasant memories of my father's 
house, are those of the visits of good men and 
women who were entertained there. What a treat 
and a blessing to us children, was the coming of 
these saints. Among these was A. B. Brown, and 
I remember his kindly interest in us young people. 
I learned to know him well, and to love him very 
tenderly, during my last year, as a student at the 
University of Virginia. It was his first year as 
pastor of the Charlottesville Baptist Church, of 
which I was a member. He often came out to 
the University, and was frequently a visitor at my 
room. It was my privilege to be much in his 
company, at his own pleasant home. What a 
treat it was to hear him talk! His judgment of 
books, men and measures, was so simple, wise 
and common-sense. His conversation, as also his 
preaching, was always suggestive and stimulating. 
You could not listen to his discourse in public or 
private, without hearing that which was to be 
remembered, and which would be almost uncon- 
sciously assimilated as a part of your own mental 
furniture. 

" During the year referred to, the Charlottes- 
ville Church called for my ordination along with 
that of three well known and gifted young men 
who Avere expecting to go to the foreign field. I 



134 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

was not ready to enter upon the work of the 
pastorate, and expected to go the next session to 
our Theological Seminary. Bro. Brown, appre- 
ciating the difficulty a young man naturally felt 
in deciding such a matter, took much interest in 
it, and an own brother could not have been more 
lovingly helpful, as he suggested peculiar reasons 
why the ordination should take place. I enclose 
an account of it, written at the time by Dr. Brown 
himself and published in a Charlottesville paper. 
For various reasons it may be of interest : 

ORDINATION. 

"At the joint call of the Charlottesville and Mechanicsville 
Baptist Churches, Elders J. B. Taylor, D. D., A. M. Poin- 
dexter, Charles Quarles, T. G. Jones, John A. Broadus, D.D., 
James Fife, Wm. P. Parish and A. B. Brown, assembled in 
Charlottesville, on the 9th of June, 1860, to examine Avith a 
view to ordination, brethren C. H. Toy, J. L. Johnson, J. B. 
Taylor, Jr., of the former church, and J. W. Jones, of the 
latter. This presbytery organized itself by calling J. B. 
Taylor, Sr., to the chair, and appointing A. B. Brown Secre- 
tary, and, after inviting to its aid a comniittee from the 
]\Iechanicsville Church and all the ministering and private 
brethren who were present, proceeded to examine the candi- 
dates with respect to their conversion, call to the ministry and 
doctrinal views. The result of the examination being highly 
satisfactory, it was resolved that the ordination of all the can- 



HIS WORK IN CHAELOTTESVILLE. 135 

didates be proceeded with on the morrow (Sunday) after the 
sermon. Elder A. B. Cabaniss had been requested to take 
part in the public services of the ordination, and those services 
■were distributed among the members of the presbytery, as 
will hereafter appear. 

"At 11 o'clock on the Sunday morning, the spacious Baptist 
Church was densely thronged with an audience embracing an 
unusually large element of high intelligence and culture, 
called out by the distinguished reputation of the preacher and 
by a commendable interest in the youth, the blameless lives, 
the sound and thorough scholarship, and especially the self- 
devotion of the candidates for ordination, three of whom have 
offered for the untried mission among the Japanese. The con- 
gregation listened for an hour and a quarter with unflagging 
interest to the noble discourse of Eev. T. G. Jones, on the 
text, * Preach the AVord.' This was one of the best efforts of 
its admired author, whose subtlety and logical power few of the 
ministers of Virginia can surpass, whose width of mental range 
scarcely one can equal, and whose richness of imagination, and 
splendor and beauty of diction are absolutely unrivalled. 

" It is still more gratifying to say that many who once feared 
that this bold thinker would project himself beyond the 
limits of orthodoxy, or lift himself into the regions of coldly 
correct speculation, and who have prayed, as Fuller prayed 
for Hall, ' the Lord keep that young man,' are witnessing in 
his productions from year to year an increase of spirituality 
and pathos. At the close of the sermon. Elder J. B. Taylor 
prayed most devoutly and earnestly for the young brethren, 
and in the mean time the hands of the presbytery were laid 



136 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

on the heads of the caudidates. By this time the crowd had 
received considerable accessions from the other worshiping 
assemblies just dismissed in the town, and when it' was 
announced that Dr. Broadus would deliver the charge to the 
ordained, the standing throng around the doors pressed far 
down the aisles, preserving, however, a breathless silence. 
The address was replete with mature wisdom, and pervaded 
by a tenderness befitting the close relations between the 
speaker and the young men. In a word, it brought out as 
well as the limits of time and theme would allow, the very 
high and full-orbed talent, the broad and thorough culture, 
the deep-toned piety, and the genial sympathies of him to 
whom this part of the service happily fell. Some difficult 
discussions would have been necessary to call forth his rare 
powers of clear analysis, luminous statement, and forcible 
argumentation. Any occasion, however, exhibits in him a 
completeness of view that excludes all half truths, an inimi- 
table precision and fulness of expression that makes his 
utterances almost ungainsayable, and a style which combines 
the Saxon simplicity of Bunyan with the elegance of Hall. 
After the charge, our ardent, sagacious, practical and devoted 
missionary to China, Rev. A. B. Cabaniss, presented, on be- 
half of the presbytery, a Bible to each of the new ministers. 
Rev. Dr. Quarles gave them the right hand of fellowship. 
Some of us then expected a rare treat from A. M. Poiudexter, 
but he had the singular good sense not to detain the audience, 
contenting himself with affectionately commending the dear 
young brctlircn to the prayers and sympathies of the j^ious. 

A. B. Brown. 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 137 

"Occasionally on a Sunday night, our brother 
would press one of the ministerial students into 
service, myself among the rest. Notwithstanding 
his great ability, it was not a trial to preach in 
his presence. He was such a kind appreciative 
listener, that his presence rather helped and stimu- 
lated than depressed or embarrassed. 

"After leaving the University, I saw little of 
him for years. I went to the Seminary at Green- 
ville — then the war came on. During all this 
time the memory of his purity, unselfishness, 
gentleness and consecration was often an inspi- 
ration. 

"In the year 1871, I was riding in a carriage 
with Dr. Brown and the late Dr. A. M. Poindex- 
ter. We were talking of the future life, and I 
used the expression, ' If we get to Heaven,' etc. 
Dr. P. promptly said in substance, ' you should not 
speak thus ; we are the children of God, through 
faith in Jesus Christ, and there can be no doubt 
that we shall reach the heavenly home'. I remem- 
ber how Dr. Brown seemed impressed, and he told 
me not long since, that he frequently thought of 
the incident and that it had been a great blessing 
to him. He was, as you know, a great friend and 
admirer of Dr. Poindexter, at whose house in his 
young manhood he spent much time. He was the 



138 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

author of the admirable sketch of that gifted man 
which appeared in Cathcart's Encyclopedia. One 
of the most impressive things I ever read from his 
pen .was a tribute to Mrs. P., in which occurs the 
following beautiful passage, in w4iich there is an 
incidental reference to his own early life : 

" Farewell to thee, my sister ! Farewell, perhaps for ever, to 
Poplar Avenue, my much cherished resort ! Thy tall trees 
are decaying, thy halls are deserted, most of thy former 
tenants are mouldering to dust ; and the living are tearing 
themselves away from a residence amid the tombs. Happy 
hours have I spent around thy hearthstone, to which memory 
shall flee for refuge, in the dark days of the future. Bright 
figures have I seen within thy walls ; but the presence which 
furnished their most favorable and attractive light is gone 
forever ! 

" The last time we met w^as in Richmond, at our 
General Association. I can never forget the ten- 
der loving words which he spoke to me. I shall 
always be thankful not only that I knew him, but 
that he was my friend and gave me a warm place 
in his heart. A nobler, purer or more gracious 
soul I never knew. 

" ' Pure was his life ; its peaceful close 

Hath placed him with the souls of light. 
Among the noble host of those 

Who labored in the cause of right.' 

"J. B. Taylor." 

Lexington, Va., Jan. i, 1886. 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 139 

The following recollections of Dr. Brown, from 
the genial and accomplished Professor Holmes, 
of the University of Virginia, will be read with 

interest : 

"University of Virginia. 

'' ISth January, 1886. 

" It was my good fortune to become somewhat 
intimately acquainted with the late Dr. Brown, 
when he was settled in Charlottesville, in charge 
of the Baptist Church. I was strongly attached 
to him by his earnestness, simplicity, and intelli- 
gence. I was favored by him, with as cordial an 
intercourse, as our constant occupations, difference 
of duties, and diversity of habits permitted. I 
frequently attended the services at his church, for 
the instruction, direction, and consolation derived 
from his sermons. These were always full of 
matter, well-considered and suggestive ; and were 
both a guide and a cardiac. The thoughts were 
abundant, strong, and closely concatenated. There 
was a novelty, as well as a straightforwardness, 
in their presentation, which aroused interest, and 
secured acceptance, after careful examination. 
Unquestionably, his discourses were too compact 
and abstruse, to be fully apprehended by an 
inattentive or unsympathizing audience. Their 
delivery was awkward, and at times grotesque. 



140 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

This impaired their effect on a j^romiscuous con- 
gregation. But the negligence of manner, and 
the disregard of form, drew attention to the su]> 
stance of w^hat was said, and w^on upon the re- 
gards of those who discerned the value of the 
gem, without caring for the setting. 

" Dr. Brown was eager and single-minded in all 
he undertook. There was a child's unconscious- 
ness and self-oblivion in his performance of the 
work which his hands found to do. He was a 
diligent and truth-hunting student. What he 
acquired with meditative toil, he set before his 
hearers, in the aspect presented to himself, as the 
imperative fulfilment of his ^ high vocation.' He 
had naturally a mind of wide compass and of 
tenacious grasp. It w^as a task for any intel- 
lectual capacity to master, weigh and adapt to the 
furniture of the mind, the grave and compressed 
conclusions which he propounded in ordinarj' con- 
versation. Even a slight acquaintance sufficed to 
give assurance that he w^as a man, mentally and 
morally, rounded and complete — lord of himself 
and of the knowledge which he had w^on from 
deep mines. 

" Others, who knew him well in the seclusion of 
private life, can speak, as I had no right to speak, 
of the l^eauty and purity of his character, of his 



HIS ViQ-RK IN CHAELOTTESVILLE. 141 

gentleness and amiability concealed beneath the 
outward covering, and of the candor and warmth 
of his whole nature. 

"It is a refreshment to recall the memory of 
Dr. Brown, after the long interval of years : and 
the regret for his loss, in the midst of his useful- 
ness is a lasting grief. 

"The remembrance of such men is an inheritance. 

" Such is the impression stamped upon my mem- 
ory by Dr. Brown. The lines are still sharp and 
undefaced, after a quarter of a century. 

"Geo. Fred'k Holmes." 

There are some people who entertain entirely 
mistaken views, as to the character of Dr. Brown. 
They see him, even now, only through the lens 
of exaggerated statement. While gifted and cul- 
tured beyond his companions, he was not perfect. 
He had a weakness that, for a time, seemed almost 
to paralyze his best efforts, the notoriety of which 
dimmed his ministerial reputation. Some called 
it nervousness. Prof. Hart has termed it anger. 
Whatever it was, no one deplored its presence 
more than he did. 

The writer remembers only one occasion, in 
which he showed irritation, in a public assembly. 

He was preaching to a crowded house in Char- 



142 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

lottesville, and was discussing a metaphysical sub- 
ject, that required the most subtle elaboration. 
The whole power of his being, seemed concentra- 
ted in the effort of eliminating the truth. Just at 
the critical moment, two young men got up from 
their seats in the gallery near the pulpit, and 
stalked all the way down the aisle. When they 
got near to the stairway, he stopped in his ser- 
mon, his self-command forsook him, and, pointing 
his finger to them, as his face blazed with fiery 
indignation, said : " Young men, if I were a lawyer 
at the bar, I would resent such conduct." The 
effect on the audience, as on himself, was painful. 
Good people wept, and strangers stared and won- 
dered. His sermon had vanished — his strength 
was exhausted. After a feeble attempt to rally, 
he dismissed the audience, and went away to his 
home, mortified and distressed. 

The next time the church met in prayer-meet- 
ing, he appeared before them in tears, apologizing 
for his conduct, and begging them to pray that he 
might have grace to overcome his great tempta- 
tion. He used to say, in speaking of the habit 
some church-goers have of bowing their heads 
during preaching, that after having spent a week 
of preparation for his sermon, he could not bear 
to preach to the tops of the heads of the people. 



HIS WORK IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. 143 

At this period of his life he did some of his 
hardest work as a student. Ignoring his obliga- 
tions to build up his physical organism, he was 
constantly employed expanding his mental forces. 
Coming from his study, his mind all aglow with 
burning truth that he had to deliver, it was not a 
difficult matter for him to transfer his emotions 
from the subject under discussion, to the offender 
who dared put any obstacle in his way. 

Sometimes his wife would say to him, just before 
going into the pulpit : " Now don't, please don't, 
notice any disturbance," when he would reply, 
" You need not tell me that, you know that I 
wouldn't, if I could help it." 

And yet he did finally slay the tyrant. By the 
force of his will, and by the grace of God, he 
became in his latter days, one of the most self- 
possessed of spirits. Those who knew him in 
middle life, could hardly believe that such a 
change could have taken place. In the class 
room, filled with merry rollicking boys, he was 
the genial, humorous magnetic teacher, and not 
the irritable, nervous old man that some predicted 
he would be. 

It is not certainly known where the following 
admirable address was delivered : 



144 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 



CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 



Christianity is a system, or rather a complex of truths 
revealed from heaven to men — truths which the human mind 
could not discover, but which it can understand and embrace. 
Civilization, considered apart from Christianity, is the sum of 
all the truths and institutions which men have without direct 
divine aid, developed from their intuitions and experience. 
We are to consider to day, in part the ideal, but chiefly the 
historical relations of these to each other. We must first 
slightly modify our definition of Christianity. It is indeed, a 
revelation to man and not a production of man. But it pro- 
ceeds upon certain convictions about God and duty, which 
itself declares to be native to the human mind, but which 
it unfolds with a new clearness, and sanctions with a higher 
authority. It is not to be supposed for a moment, that if the 
heathen by the light of nature, knew enough of God and duty 
to be without excuse, the advent of Christianity has quenched 
this native light, or rendered it obsolete and useless. Chris- 
tianity and civilization therefore, exercise common jurisdiction 
over the domains of natural theology and of ethics. Here, 
and here alone, can there — if they understand themselves and 
each other — be any direct conflict between them. Christianity 
resents the interference of civilization in the sphere of pure 



CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 145 

revelation, and scrupulously avoids intrusion into the pecu- 
liar department of her sister. Any legitimate, mutual 
influence that they can exert, must be wholly indirect. And 
in fact, their interaction has chiefly been of this character. 

The first to be noticed of the indirect influences of Chris- 
tianity upon civilization, was exercised in the preservation of 
the Hebrew and Greek, and Roman literature. The most 
authoritative records of Christian facts and doctrines, are con- 
tained in the Greek and Hebrew languages. These records 
cannot be understood apart from the history and general 
literature of those nations. So Christianity has been com- 
pelled to preserve and interpret them, in order to understand 
herself. That modern civilization is so grounded on antiquity, 
is so conservative in its character, has drawn from the past 
so much of the rich material of institutions, and so many 
pregnant suggestions for its self-development, is due more to 
Christianity, than to the inherent vitality of the noblest ol 
the ancient literatures. Let those who love to recognize, and 
even to exaggerate our obligations to Greece, remember that 
but for the church, Greece would have been living Greece 
no more. 

Nor is there abatement of this immense debt to Christianity 
in the alleged fact, that Christianity, while preserving ancient 
literatures, destroyed ancient institutions. For this is not a 
fact; Grecian civilization was dying before the advent 
of Christianity. Its literature was suffocating under the 
throttling grip of despotism. Its philosophy which once knew, 
or thought it knew, could now only argue, and doubt and 



146 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

deny. Its religion had become the secret scoff of the priest 
and the educated classes, and reigned more in the tastes than 
in the convictions of the populace. Christianity attacked and 
destroyed only the religions of the Greeks and Romans. If 
this religion had been the vital element, or the cement of the 
civilization, of course its removal would have caused the 
whole structure to crumble. But such it was not. The Greeks 
themselves generally believed with us, that their religion was 
not a revelation, but a human production. And more, they 
did not consider it the root of their civilization, but a graft 
infixed by priests, at the instance of crafty statesmen. Surely 
the destruction of a thing so accidental could have hardly 
resulted in the death, thouo^h it mi"jht have led to the modifi- 
cation, of a system of which it formed part. We think, then, 
that Christianity is fairly to be credited with preservation of 
ancient literatures, without being debted with the ruin of 
ancient institutions. 

I have said that legitimate influence of Christianity and 
civilization upon each, outside of natural theology and 
ethics, must be wholly indirect. You will admit that if 
there is to be any mutual influence, this is true. But 
you will ask, must they have relations? Beyond all doubt, 
Christianity and civilization come together for consideration 
in the same human soul. Thoy cannot be entertained at the 
same time, unless they appear to be demonstrably consistent, 
or to say the least, not obviously inconsistent. A man first 
stands face to face with Christianity, having in his mind, 
memories of personal experience, scientific views, political 



CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 147 

theories and prejudices, and what not. These things are in 
his mind, indeed in some sense are his mind. Must they not 
fix the extent and mode of his conception of Christianity? 
Must he not renounce some of the views which are clearly 
irreconcilable with it, or will he not modify his views of 
Christianity ? He will not deliberately renounce them. Objec- 
tive Christianity he knows to be uncompromising. He will 
not deliberately sacrifice anything of its form, or spirit, to an 
enforced harmony of doctrines and institutions, which he has 
already received. But he will be very happy if, with so many 
points of contact between, he does not warp his Christianity — 
his ideas of Christianity — to an accommodation with existing 
systems and institutions. Notice two important respects 
in which this has been done. Christianity consists of facts 
and doctrines. But its facts are not arranged into perfectly 
regular history. Its doctrines are a beautiful miscellany of 
principles. Now, we may denounce, or sneer at dogma and 
systematical theology as much as we please ; but the human 
mind must, and will reduce the truths which it accepts, to 
order and logical dependence. Now, Christianity has no 
system of philosophy, no formal logic. How shall it get itself 
systematized and codified? The Greeks are at hand, oflfering 
their philosophy, and especially their rigid logic, as the con- 
venient mould into which might be run the new Christianity. 
Men were pressing into the Church fresh from the schools of 
Antioch and Athens, bringing much method into an institu- 
tion wherein there was little or none. They did a little 
excellent work. They defined some Christian doctrines. 



148 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

notably that of the Trinity, ^vith an acuteuess and precision, 
which have never been surpassed in connection with this, or 
any other subject. But they could hardly fail at times to 
distort or mutilate Christianity, in adjustment to their Pro- 
crustean bed. Christianity had no system of internal govern- 
ment ; at most it had only a few definitely fixed regulations 
for the management of local bodies, called churches, every- 
thing else being left flexible or adjustable to circumstances. 
Unfortunately, there was soon substituted for the Scriptural 
idea of an invisible Spiritual, general church, ruled by Christ 
in heaven, the idea of a great visible organized empire with 
a human head. Where shall be found the model of this 
empire ? Christianity itself knows nothing of statesmanship 
and administration. These belong to the domain of what we 
have called civilization in one of its departments. Many 
Christians who were recent importations from the sphere of 
politics, were ready to point models for its organization. Some 
hints they got from the synagogues, more from the Sanhedrim. 
But the Roman government was a rich treasury of suggestions, 
with its imperial head, and its descending ranks of dependence 
and responsibility. Hence the idea of an imperial govern- 
ment for the Church. But a head is lacking to make the 
system complete. The Christian emperor undertakes himself 
to supply the deficiency, and an unspiritual, temporal monarchy 
debauches and then dominates this new external Church. 
Hence the union of Church and State. But ambitious church 
dignitaries think it unseemly to have a temporal head for a 
spiritual body. Hence a pope. As there is now a union of 



CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 149 

Church and State, and two heads, one must be actually- 
sovereign. 

For a while the pope and his official body are the 
dependents and supporters, often indeed the grumbling, 
reluctant dependents and supporters of temporal power. 
Then sovereign over the temporal power again, relapsing into 
dependence on, and support of imperial and kingly govern- 
ment. And the papacy, the result of the influence of one 
department of the old civilization, has either exercised or sup- 
ported absolute government. I think it but just to say that 
the old undying Christian spirit, silently working in much of 
the membership and even the priesthood of the Catholic 
Church, has often exerted a very different influence. 

I have spoken so far, chiefly of the influence of civilization 
on Christianity. I must hereafter speak of Christianity on 
civilization. I have said that this is mainly indirect — it does 
not immediately touch any mundane thing. It quicken?, 
purifies, ennobles the individual soul. It feeds the mind on 
high thoughts of God and Christ. It substitutes for Plato's 
pleasing thoughts and fond desire, the confident hope of 
immortality.. It exalts the imagination with views of 
heaven, or rather, it excites an effort to construct a heaven 
which never can be fully imagined. Above all, it pierces the 
conscience with more than the sharpness of a two-edged 
sword ; and mightily taxes and trains the intellect in a 
grapple with innumerable questions in detail of right and 
duty, and tones up the will to control without mutilating or 
destroying the body. In a word, it elevates the man, and 



150 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

must elevate society in elevating individuals. The revelation 
from heaven, is light beaming its calorific rays to beautify the 
social system, light shedding its warming rays to vitalize it, 
light beaming its chemical and mechanical rays, slowly to 
change the whole molecular structure of society. Here is 
something then better than the philosopher's stone ; something 
that changes wood, hay, and stubble into silver and gold, and 
precious gems. It affects forms of govern raent very much, 
perhaps even more, than the furnisher of building material 
affects architecture. Christianity, apart from doing anything 
to affect forms of government in giving society better men 
for rulers, for subjects and for citizens, has conferred an ines- 
timable blessing on mankind. I think it does something for 
modes of government, but in a very quiet and indirect way. 
It suggests and authorizes no systems. I would not say a 
word in favor of democracy here to-day, or on any day. I 
might be allowed to say that I should not feel hurt at being 
called a democrat; but I should be really grieved to hear my 
Master called a democrat. He is no democrat. He is no 
aristocrat, and though king of kings. He is no monarchist. 
Yet, Christianity tends, slowly tends to develop or change 
governments into more liberal forms. Many great thinkers 
have said, notably Dr. Wayland, that free government cannot 
be maintained among men of a low intellectual and moral 
grade. They will be, they must be governed by the strong 
hand. As men become wiser and better, they largely control 
themselves. The bonds of government will insensibly be 
relaxed ; and admiuistration will spontaneously adjust itself 



CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 151 

to the changed conditions, though the tough manacles of 
inveterate despotism, have sometimes to be dissolved even in 
Christian nations, amid throes and convulsions. The Puri- 
tans of England in contending for some portions of the 
British Constitution, did violently subvert other portions. 
This resulted, I am confident, from that union of Church and 
State, which Protestantism had inherited from the papacy, 
and had not discarded. Keligion and political rights were 
attacked together, and defended. But where freedom of 
belief and worship is conceded, civil rights among Christians 
will generally be sought by constitutional remedies, with little 
or nothing of violent revolution. 

When we come to consider the laws of Christian countries, 
apart from modes of administration, we find them not so much 
pervaded by the Christian spirit, as founded on Christianity 
itself. Ethics belongs, as I said at the beginning, theo- 
retically, to the domains both of Christianity and general 
civilization. Practically, they have been abandoned, deferred 
to the patronage of Christianity. And the gospel as it is 
understood, if not pure ideal gospel, has fashioned the moral 
ideas of Christendom, and the laws have been founded on 
them. 

The judicial machinery is of human origin. The construc- 
tion of the jury may be borrowed from ancient Germany; but 
the substance of the instruction of the judge is drawn from 
the Jewish and the Christian law-givers. 

Christianity originated, and has generally controlled the 
higher education of the Christian nations. It must have its 



152 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

teachers, its'clergy, taught in the Bible, and in the languages in 
which it is contained and in the literature of those languages; 
and for the purpose of systematizing, defending and expound- 
ing its doctrines, it must have its ministers educated in phil- 
osophy, logic, rhetoric and general literature. It could not 
safely leave this instruction to aliens and enemies. It must 
have its own schools. There was no where, but in Church or 
in State, sufficient organizing power to get up, endow and 
equip great schools. So the Church, and afterwards Church 
and State united, but even then chiefly the Church element in 
the State established all the higher schools; and drew to them 
instruction in law, in medicine, in the liberal arts so-called, 
and in a word, all higher education. In very modern times, 
disintegration has set in law and medicine, set up for 
themselves. The State parting company with the Church 
established high-schools, and we are coming to have all sorts 
of special schools ; many of them, unfortunately, without any- 
thing of general culturing discipline. We have polytechnic 
schools, agricultural, art schools, book-keeping schools, and 
what not. But Christianity, in the Christian denominations, 
still has the chief control of the higher education ; it is the 
breakwater against innovation, the champion of instruction 
in the ancient languages, the keystone of its whole educa- 
tional system. If the unwise demand for the so-called practi- 
cal, the immediately useful, prevail, the keystone will be 
knocked out. The system will fall to pieces; and every youth 
will go with his untrained mind to an apprenticeship in his 
chosen trade or profession. But to return. Christianity once 



CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 153 

did everything ; still does almost everything for the higher 
education. What a mighty influence she has exerted in this 
way on civilization, goes without saying. 

Let us notice some things that it has done. It must 
teach a high ethics, theoretical and practical. It must give 
prominence to psychology, the study of the human soul ; for 
with the Christian the maxim, " know thyself" is much more 
than a beautiful aphorism. Then the higher philosophy, the 
philosophy of the infinite and the absolute, of cause and 
effects, touches the very vitals of Christianity, the existence of 
God. With natural philosophy Christianity would seem to 
have little to do. Yet it must intervene there to keep in 
check the spirit of materialism, which seems so native to that 
department of knowledge. But this is not all. The practical 
and benevolent interest which modern experimental philosophy 
takes, in the humble abilities of life, is altogether Christian. 
There was no chemistry in Plato's day, and almost no 
mechanical philosophy; and none was desired. Proud ancient 
philosophy looked with sovereign contempt on the work of 
sailors, tanners, dyers and builders, and scavengers and 
washers, and cooks. But Christian philosophy is not proud ; 
she walks with her beautiful robes unsoiled through filthy 
alleys, and amid pots and ovens, tubs and suds ; cheering, 
lessening, sweetening, guiding, dignifying labor. 

Christianity has developed into a science "The laws of 
nations;" the name and some germs of the thing, existed among 
the ancients. The Romans talked much and practiced little 
of "/us Gentium." Virgil expresses Pome's practical con- 



154 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

ception when he apostrophizes his people in the exclamation : 
" Do thou, Roman rule the world !" Christianity conceives 
the sisterhood of the nations ; develops the equity, humanity and 
courtesy, which should govern their intercourse. And though 
she has not turned the fury of battle she has done much 
"to smooth the wrinkled brow of grim-visaged war." Then, 
what blessed institutions of benevolence she has introduced ; 
institutions wholly unknown outside of Christendom. In the 
asylums which she has organized or suggested, she has kindly 
nursed the victim, and sternly exorcised the demon of mad- 
ness. She has made the lame to walk and leap, and praise 
God. She has been eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf; 
and she is beginning to teach the dumb literally to speak. 
She has hovered in the rear of battle with an escort of minis- 
tering angels, in the form of blessed Christian women, to nurse 
its wounded and soothe its dying. 

Ah, here I am reminded of an almost unpardonable omis- 
sion in the body of this address. But how could I have done 
justice to what Christianity has done by "woman and for 
woman." I should have utterly failed to represent the sweet 
and heavenly influence of the Christian mother, or sister or 
wife. And the most graceful thing which I could have done, 
would have been to imitate the artist, who despaired of his 
ability to paint the features of his ideal woman, and simply 
drew a veil over her face. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 155 



CHAPTER YII. 

THE DAYS OF WAE. 

TN a former chapter, Prof. Hart tells us that Dr. 
Brown was not an original secessionist. He 
was not in sympathy with the extreme Southern 
men in their attempt to disrupt the Federal Union. 
He was, however, a believer in the doctrine of 
States rights, and felt that his allegiance to Vir- 
ginia was supreme. When, therefore, Virginia, 
passed the ordinance of secession, Dr. Brown 
linked his political fortunes with her. It was not 
possible for one of his ardent temperament and 
burning enthusiasm, to remain an indifferent 
spectator, in the midst of the stirring scenes of 
war. His soul caught the warlike spirit of the 
times, and he watched the deepening conflict with 
inexpressible solicitude. He had neither health 
nor taste, for the rough life of the soldier, and 
during the early months of the war, he stood at 
his post in Hollins Institute. As, however, the 
war went on, and the religious necessities of the 
soldiers became more apparent, he felt that he 
could no longer stand aloof — his place was in the 



156 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

camp, — not to handle the carnal weapons of an 
earthly warfare, but to carry the bread of life to 
the Southern soldiery. So strongly did this con- 
viction possess him, that he resigned his Professor- 
ship, sent his family to their home in Pittsylvania 
county, and entered the camp as a missionary of 
the cross. It is fortunate for the reader that Dr. J. 
Wm. Jones, an old army chaplain, who was asso- 
ciated with Dr. Brown at this point in his history, 
has furnished for this volume an interesting sketch 
of his work among the soldiers. His gifted pen 
presents a vivid portraiture of the Christian min- 
ister in camp. 

" Rarely, if ever, since apostolic times, has the 
world witnessed more precious revivals than those 
with which the Army of Northern Virginia was 
blessed. At the very first there was in the ranks 
of that army, a very large proportion of the effi- 
cient male members of all of the evangelical 
churches of the South, and the religious interest 
grew until in the autumn and winter of 62-63 
there begun a revival which grew in interest, 
which the bloody campaign of Chancellorsville 
and Gettysburg did not check, but which in Au- 
gust, '63, culminated in the ''great awakening," 
which made every camp vocal with the praises of 



THE DAYS OF WAR. 157 

God, and went graciously on until over fifteen 
thousand soldiers in Lee's army had professed 
faith in Jesus. 

" No organization was more efficient in laboring 
in the camps and hospitals of the army, than the 
Virginia Baptist ' Sunday School and Publication 
Board,' of which Rev. A. E. Dickinson was then 
the able and efficient Superintendent. At the 
meeting of the General Association, in June, 
1861, the Board was instructed to continue the 
policy already inaugurated, and to confine their 
labors chiefly to a vigorous pushing of army col- 
portage. 

"At the meeting in 1862, the Superintendent 
reported that the Board had collected $24,000, 
published 40 tracts, distributed 6,187,000 pages of 
tracts, 13,845 copies of ^Camp Hymns, (published 
by the Board,) besides a large number of Bibles, 
Testaments, and religious books; the next year 
they reported |60,027.34 collected, 80 colporteurs 
and evangelists among the soldiers, 24,000,000 
pages of tracts published and circulated, 25,000 
Bibles and Testaments distributed, and many 
thousand copies of religious papers sent weekly 
to the camps and hospitals ; and for the next two 
years the Board reported an even larger work 
performed. Among the most efficient laborers of 



158 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, I)D. LLD. 

this Board, was our honored and gifted brother, 
Dr, A. B. Brown. 

" When the war broke out, he was pastor in 
Charlottesville, and took the most active interest 
in the religious welfare of the numbers of sick 
and wounded soldiers congregated in the large 
hosjDitals located there. I have no means of 
knowing the extent and results of these labors, 
but I distinctly remember that I not unfrequently 
heard soldiers on their return from these hospitals, 
speak enthusiastically of Dr. Brown and his work. 

" On the march from the Valley to First Fred- 
ericksburg, in the latter part of November or first 
of December, 1862, I was riding one day with 
that accomplished scholar, brilliant artillerist, and 
high-toned Christian gentleman. Col. Lewis Minor 
Coleman (then Professor at the University of Vir- 
ghiia,) who was so soon to yield up his noble life 
for the land and cause he loved so well, and we 
got to talking about the religious welfare of the 
army and the necessity of having our best men 
to preach in the camps. Col. Coleman, in a strain 
of eloquent talk, which he only could command, 
was very emphatic in expressing the opinion that 
our ablest pastors ought to spend at least a few" 
months each in army work, and in that connection 
spoke of his pastor, Dr. Brown, in the strongest 



THE DAYS OF WAR. 159 

terms of affectionate admiration, and said that he 
should write and beg him to come. It was in this 
connection that he said : ' Dr. Brown has my exact 
range; he hits me every time.' [I remember that 
when I once repeated this to Dr. Brown, he seemed 
touched by the compliment of his distinguished and 
lamented friend, but added with his usual modesty, 
' Ah ! but I fear that when I had Lewis Minor 
Coleman s ^ range' that I was shooting over the 
heads of everybody else.'] 

" I do not know whether Col. Coleman was able 
to fulfill his purpose, (for two weeks later he fell 
at Fredericksburg, and lingered for several weeks 
to show how a Christian soldier could die,) but I 
do know that Dr. Brown was anxious to come to 
the army to preach, and that in the autumn of 
1863 or winter of 1863-64 he accepted an appoint- 
ment from the Colportage Board, and was attached 
to Carter's Artillery Battallion (of which Col. Thos. 
H. Carter was Colonel, and Lieut. Colonel Carter 
Braxton was second in command,) as Missionary 
Chaplain. I very much regret that I cannot now 
find certain material which would give me some 
details of Dr. Brown's army work. But I have a 
very distinct impression of the earnest zeal with 
which he threw himself into the work, the ability 
and power with which he preached, and the gentle 



160 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

self-sacrificing spirit with which he labored among 
the sick and wounded. I had the privilege of 
hearing him preach a few times, and I remember 
being surprised and delighted to find that he 
added to the great ability which always charac- 
terized his sermons a tender pathos, an unction, 
and a popular power which seemed to move and 
thrill all who heard him. He ' had the range ' of 
the most intelligent and scholarly men who heard 
him, (and there were many of them in Lee's army, 
especially in the Artillery,) but he also ' hit every 
time ' the humblest and most illiterate of his 
auditors. With a stump for his pulpit, the blue 
canopy of heaven for his ' sounding board,' and for 
his auditors bronzed veterans of an hundred fights, 
ready soon, perhaps, to fight their last battle, his 
very soul seemed stirred within him, and if elo- 
quence is ^ logic set on fire,' then he was eloquent 
above almost any man I ever heard. 

" I remember hearing him on the text, ' Ye know 
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though 
He was rich yet for your sakes became poor that 
ye through His poverty might be rich,' and I have 
often wished that I had been able to make a ver- 
batim report of his portrayal to those ragged, bare- 
footed ^boys in gray,' of the riclies and the poverty of 
Jesus, and the result to us. Such a report would, I 



THE DAYS OF WAR. 161 

am sure, have taken rank among the great ser- 
mons of the ages. 

" I recall with mournful pleasure now, a week 
or ten dsijs I spent with him near Frederick's Hall 
Depot, Louisa County, in the latter part of Feb- 
ruary, 1864. We were preaching several times 
every day in the Artillery of E well's corps, which 
was in winter quarters near by, and were being 
entertained with old Virginia Christian hospitality 
by those noble Baptist women, the Misses Garland, 
and rarely did I ever enjoy a greater intellectual 
and spiritual treat than in my intercourse with 
this intellectual giant, this humble, devout Chris- 
tian. He was certainly one of the ^fullest' men I 
ever met, and I said of him one day, after we had 
been discoursing certain military plans, /he ought 
to have been a general.' It was during this vist 
that the celebrated Dahlgren raid occurred, and 
Dahlgren dashed up within several hundred yards 
of the artillery, which he might have captured 
had he not been frightened off by the false report 
that there was a heavy infantry support there I 
remember some very ludicrous experiences which 
Dr. Brown and myself had in tramping around in 
the rain and mud, acting as guides, carrying our 
muskets, etc., and I shall never forget the alacrity 
with which he availed himself of every opportu- 



162 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

nitj to speak a "word for Christ to individual 
soldiers, and to preach to the gathered congrega- 
tion of brave fellows. 

^' He spoke to me enthusiastically of his work 
among the soldiers, and I have frequently heard 
him since speak very earnestly of the pleasure his 
labors among them gave him. 

" I have no means at hand of ascertaining the 
number of professions of conversion in connection 
with his labors, but I know there were many ; I 
am sure that many of God's people were strength- 
ened and built up by the ^ strong meat ' he gave 
them, and T doubt not that he won in this field 
many 'jewels, bright jewels,' for his Saviour's dia- 
dem — many ' stars ' that now glitter in his own 
' crown of rejoicing.' 

"J. Wm. JOx-^ES." 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 163 



A SERMON ON SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 



" And we know that all things work together for good to them that 
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." — 
Romans viii. 28. 

We accept, and intend to maintain this proposition in its 
obvious, that is its utmost breadth. It manifestly has this 
extent of meaning, that all the machinery of dead, and all 
the organisms of living nature, all the simultaneous, and all 
the successive actions of men, angels and devils, as well as the 
immediate activities of God Himself, are embraced in a 
system of unqualified beneficence to Christians. Certain 
features of the system may be singly harsh, but they are 
adjusted with infinite skill, as foils, to the benignity of its 
entire countenance. Some object to the all embracing com- 
prehension, which we give our passage, on the ground that 
only the afflictions of the saints are alluded to, in the context, 
as digested into a system of grim-visaged mercy. The afflic- 
tions of the saints are indeed in the context, but they are there 
as the occasions, and not as the grounds of the statement 
which furnishes our topic. Now, while conclusions cannot 
legitimately go beyond their premises, nothing is more usual or 
more allowable than that principles, are pushed beyond the occa- 
sions of their announcement. Human tribunals often formally 



164 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

propose doctrines affecting the most important legal contro- 
versies in deciding cases directly involving only a few dimes. 
And a similar extension of principles, so as to out-reach the 
circumstances in which they are imbedded, is characteristic 
of Divine revelation. Even if there were (as there is not) 
anything in the original text justifying the rendering "all 
these things " instead of " all things" the unlimited proposition 
would still be necessarily implied, though not expressly stated. 
If sufferings are planned upon a method of disciplinary mercy, 
they can only form a part of a still more comprehensive sys- 
tem. For otherwise, events wearing a friendly aspect, or 
hoisting neutral colors, would ever be thwarting the stern and 
frowning method. Gleams of sunshine would disturb the 
salutary effect of clouds freighted with blessings; and the 
smile of our Father would interfere with the well-weighed 
effect of the graver countenance of His love ; it is then as 
repugnant to reason, as it is revolting to our religious intui- 
tions to affirm that God's frowns are systematic, and His 
smiles desultory, and occasional. If then, there is any system 
of merciful providence over Christians, that system is neces- 
sarily all-embracing. But you ask why consume time on so 
clear a matter ? And I pass from the statement to the discus- 
sion of our proposition. 

It is indispensable to a proper decision on the conclusiveness 
of the arguments, to be submitted, that the basis on which w^e 
rest the doctrine be clearly understood. We establish our 
proposition simply by the authority of Scripture, we confirm 
it by its beautiful correspondence with what reason teaches of 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 165 

the infinitely active beneficence of God towards those who are 
at peace with Him, and we vindicate it from the charge 
of being in irreconcilable conflict with the testimony of 
experience and philosophy, to the prevalence of inflexible law 
in the Divine government. 

We are sure of commending it to the hearty acceptance of 
our hearers, when we show that it is a deliverance of the well- 
attested w^ord of God, and that it is not a square and necessary 
contradiction of any demonstrated truth. We do not base the 
minute providence over the Christian, for which we contend, 
on the experience of individuals, or on history, the experience 
of the race. Reason may conceive that opposing events, like 
streamlets gushing .from opposite sides of a hill, may be tribu- 
taries to the same stream of beneficence, and that all the 
bewildering maze of forces that seems to revel so capriciously 
around the Christian, is marshaled with exactest method, by 
the Captain of His salvation. 

But what reason can conceive as possible, experience cannot 
assert as actual. History maintains with, we believe, a justi- 
fied confidence that, when masses of men and centuries of time 
are considered, the course of events is, on the whole, favorable 
to virtue. It is, however, utterly unable to assert that out- 
ward prosperity is, with any approach to uniformity, meted 
out to individuals according to merit. 

If modern novelists, wish to make nature their standard, 
their closing award of exposure and frustration to the wicked, 
and of vindication and happiness to their favorites, temporarily 
hindered of good, is a justice altogether too poetical. The 



166 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

grand old Greek dramatists, orphaned of God and of hope, 
were scarcely on a greater extreme when they arrayed their 
highest conceptions of human excellence in unequal contest, 
with unjust gods and inexorable fate. So dark was their 
picture of human life that tragedy, the name of their more 
serious drama, has become the current word for an act that 
curdles the blood, and catastrophe, its close, is the usual 
designation of a startling explosion of horrors. History 
presents innumerable facts, hardly less sombre than their 
melancholy fiction. 

The pioneers of human progress, have generally led the van 
through dreary deserts, and have often died uncheered by 
even a sight of the promised land. Miltons have lived in 
blindness, and died in poverty and neglect, while blaspheming 
triflers and libertines were surfeiting on exactions wrung 
from the toiling million. Antichrist fattens on human blood, 
and the souls of the martyrs cry from under the altar, " How 
long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge 
our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? " 

How indifferent would God seem to be to the interests of 
His church. Infidels at eighty, with natural force unabated, 
belch forth their horid ribaldry, when men like Dr. Bagby 
fall just as their lives are beginning to yield the full fruitage 
of a half-century's skillful and diligent culture. It is not sur- 
prising that those who read only the surface of facts, should 
misconceive God's attitude toward the struggles of truth. No 
wonder that Epicurus thought God took no side in the con- 
flicts of life, and that Napoleon thought He took the side of 
the heaviest artillery ! 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 167 

It would argue a causeless jealousy in the irreligious to 
accuse the Almighty of partiality to Christians simply as such, 
from the marked character of His external favors. Temper- 
ance, and the prudent management of the body, generally 
lead the worldling and the Christian alike to health. The 
skill, industry, and economy of each, equally conduces to 
wealth. Not only, does not the unskilful Christian prosper in 
business beyond the sagacious man of the world, but the obe- 
dience of the one to the laws of accumulation seems as likely 
as that of the other to be rewarded with the good that lies in 
that line ; and extraordinary events to favor or to thwart the 
attainment of material good, appear about equally to befall 
each. We must then have better proof of the truth of our 
text than the facility with which we can show that the fertili- 
izing showers, are singularly partial to the fields of the saints, 
and that the destructive thunderbolt is manifestly signaled 
away from churches and aimed with special frequency at 
brothels and gaming saloons. 

Yet there is nothing in all this to show that the Christian is 
not in the midst of a system whose minutest details are regu- 
lated mercies. A chaos of events is apparently beating upon 
his soul. But this event brings spiritual food — this is a merci- 
ful blister for his fevered passions — this is cautery — this is 
soothing lotion — all is graciously timed and graduated. This 
seeming jumble of influences that address the soul, is a well- 
ordered succession of types charged to make a most gracious, 
but invisible, imprint for eternity. 

Christian, you have not for this the evidence of sense, but 



168 LIFE OF A. B.BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

you have the clear and abundant testimony of Scripture. 
" Your shoes shall be iron and brass, and as your day so shall 
your strength be." "Thine eyes did see my substance yet 
being imperfect, and, in Thy book, all my members were written 
which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there were 
none of them." " The hairs of your heads are all numbered." 
" Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us 
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Not to 
multiply passages, we ciLe only in addition the clear and ex- 
plicit text of the present discourse. 

Who will affirm on the mere negative testimony of sense, 
that God has not arranged the universe of matter and of 
mind, in whole and in detail, with most beneficent regard to 
each saint and to the whole church ? Is the material creation 
too vast and complicated — is matter too sullenly inert to 
become, even at the fiat of omnipotence, instinct with order 
and animation to this end ? Will any one deny to Him who 
holds the keys of the bottomless pit, the power and the purpose 
to more than defeat the schemes of devils and lead them forth 
a scowling chain-gang to work on the highway that leads the 
saints to glory ? 

We have said that our proposition established by Scripture, 
is corroborated by our strongest and holiest religious institu- 
tions. It is the great problem in the moral government of 
God, for which w^e are probably no better prepared than a 
child is to comprehend capital punishment in the administra- 
tion of a ruler of acknowledged benevolence, that such stern- 
ness is threatened against God's persistent enemies. But this 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 169 

very difficulty commits our heart and intellect still more to the 
indubitable persuasion of His abounding grace to his friends. 
Shall we put any limits to His overflowing grace to the good, 
when we find it so hard to realize His severity towards the 
wicked ? 

Men are puzzled at God's rigor to Satan. Still they cannot 
know that everything in His original nature, the whole 
material universe, if it then existed, and all the angels of 
heaven did not, unite in one solid friendly remonstrance 
against His first conception of sin. Shall we puzzle too, over 
the assertion that the resistance of the unfallen angels to His 
temptation, strengthened and developed their holiness, enrich- 
ing Heaven with all, or even more than all that was lost in 
Hell ? Surely the fall of Adam has worked good to those 
who called, according to the Divine purpose, have obeyed the 
overtures to repentance and reconciliation. It has revealed 
God in the otherwise impossible attitude of mercy, it has 
furnished the conditions of the cross. It has been the occa- 
sion of the mission of the Holy Ghost, and of securing to the 
Christian, an impregnable position in having his life hid with 
Christ in God. 

Will you fix your eye on the system of peril through which 
so much mercy has been dispensed, and not consider distinctly 
the grace, which in the reign of a God of love must be its 
counterpart. Even the peril in the case of the lost, you are 
too prone to construe into an inevitable doom to destruction. 
When you transport yourselves to the beginning of the present 
order of things, and attempt to look through the perspective 



170 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

glass of the Divine foreknowledge, you illude yourselves with 
hideous unrealities ; you seem to see men and devils gravi- 
tating down the slopes of necessary thought, and running the 
channels of fateful habit, and dizzying along in the boiling 
waves of passion, and finally shooting the rapids of irresistible 
temptation. Oh, sirs, use the more manageable glasses of 
memory and conscience. Look at some slighter cascade of 
temptation, which you have recently leaped, and see if con- 
science does not testify you might have resisted, and if reason 
does not afiirm, that you might not only have repulsed evil, 
but conquered it and enriched yourselves with its spoils. It 
may be, that the power of resisted trial to lift the victor to a 
higher plane of excellence, fully vindicates God's stern proba- 
tion of moral agents in locating, on the brink of a precipice, 
the spring-board on which they train for glory. Kisks, so rich 
in the possibilities of virtue and honor, are even blessings to 
those whose wilfulness or neglect, converts them into curses. 
And to complain of them, may, for aught we know, be as 
absurd, as for a son to complain of his father for giving him 
an opportunity to cultivate his mechanical ingenuity, by 
putting into his hands the pocket-knife, with which he might 
carelessly cut his fingers. 

Sinners, you are still in the region of undecided risks ; the 
Lord has not settled upon you your rich endowment of talents 
by fixed entail ; you are not hampered in freely putting the 
Lord's money to the exchangers. 

In the exercise of your freedom, commit your treasure to the 
Kedeemer, and exchange peril for absolute safety. You are 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PEOVIDENCE. 171 



offended by probation ; forfeited, you are puzzled by proba- 
tions, pending your best conceptions of God, then unite with 
Scripture in pointing to a people abiding in full security, and 
on whom the whole scheme of providence bends a direct and 
benignant gaze. Sinner, come to the place of safety. Your 
soul is in peril ; forces now in motion are converging by the 
shortest lines for your investment ; the great king holds them. 
The heralds come forward with terms of peace, and seek with 
steadfast importunity, to fix your eyes on white-winged mercy, 
hovering over you a moment in breathless interest before she 
weighs her pinions for her eternal flight. Come to where all 
things work together for good — where Divine providence 
envelops you in an atmosphere of life and light, and 
fragrance, and sits to you all around as a girdle of strength, 
and a garment of beauty. But upon you, Christian, that 
dwell under the shadow of the wing of the Almighty, and 
upon you only this precarious truth, sheds its full light and 
warmth. It assures you that all the material and all the 
spiritual forces, that have been in motion since first, " the 
sons of God shouted for joy," converge in lines of mercy on 
your present position. And whether you are flooded with the 
radiance which beamed on the Mount of Transfiguration, or 
buried in the darkness which shrouded the three disciples in 
Gethsemane, it is good to be here, and here you should raise 
your Ebenezer. It reveals most beneficent stings in the 
thistles that luxuriate around you. It warrants that the 
fields which you are now sowing in tears, shall yield richer 
fruits and rarer flowers, than Eden bore. 



172 LIFE OF A. B. BKOWN, DD. LLD. 

We come now to consider objections to this doctrine ; and 
here we explicitly insist on what has been suggested, that 
simple difficulties in realizing all the applications of the doc- 
trine, by no means explode it. If difficulties should justify 
a reflection of statements about God we could safely divest 
Him of each of His attributes, and even deny to Him 
existence. Difficulties that legitimate even a doubt of the 
well avouched teachings of inspiration, must be demonstrated 
impossibilities or contradictions. 

We confidently deny this character to the difficulties which 
men of science find in our doctrine. The doubts of philoso- 
phers will be found impotent not to disprove, while their posi- 
tive and certain truths, go far to demonstrate. Philosophers 
love to proclaim that " all things work together." They find 
then that God works on a most comprehensive plan. We 
contend, on the authority of Scripture, that God marshals 
everything that affects the Christian according to a most 
exact method. They are the champions of the principle that, 
" Order is Heaven's first law." 

Having created a presumption in favor of its widest extent, 
will they abandon it just where it affects our most important 
interests? We think the man of science goes far towards 
establishing our position. We are right sure that he is utterly 
unable to overthrow it. "All things work together," he 
admits. Then farewell to atheism ! For what think you of 
whole codes of natural law, self-enacted, and innumerable 
bodies self-moved, each adjusted to each, with exactest sym- 
metry, each performing its appropriate work, and furnishing 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 173 

collateral employment to every other. Some creeping like the 
shadow of the dial, some winged with lightning, yet each 
delivering to each, its prescribed task at the appointed time ? 
"What an exaggerated compliment to the movements of 
armies, and the intricate organization of states, to compare 
them to clock work ; but what halting justice to the mechanism 
of God ! Here is the great organizing mind. " All things 
work together." The atmosphere draws upon the oceans in 
favor of the failing fountains, and the parched fields. The 
rivers roll back the surplus. " All its rivers run into the sea, 
yet the sea is not full." What exquisite adjustment. 

While scores of illustrations, equally striking, solicit men- 
tion, let us for brevity, restrict ourselves to one more, and 
that too, connected with the air. Every animal is inhaling 
oxygen, and breathing out carbonic acid. Every vegetable 
is absorbing carbonic acid, emitting oxygen. A very slight 
increase of oxygen would be to men as intoxicating as brandy, 
and fire their brains into frenzy, while a little deficiency would 
lull them into lethargy, Now, so admirable are the count- 
less tribes of vegetable creation, balanced against the varied 
hosts of the animal kingdom, that the atmosphere is pre- 
served without appreciable change. So precise is the balance, 
that it would seem, neither a sparrow could fall to the ground 
on this side, nor a blade of grass be cast into the oven on 
that side, without its disturbance. The tests of scientific 
men in this case, rather suggest than refute, the specialty of 
providence for which we contend. Where they find some 
departures from a method which delights the sense, they. 



174 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

themselves demonstrate a still higher method which satisfies 
the mind. Discovering some irregularities in the motions of 
the heavenly bodies, and alarmed lest remorseless, law should 
dash together the revolving worlds, they make intricate cal- 
culations, and find these disturbances consistent with, yea, 
even necessary to the stability of the system. They meet 
everywhere in nature, arrangements like the governor of a 
steam engine, tending to make the very acceleration of motion 
reduce the moving force. 

Everywhere in nature they point us to certain superior 
limits, above which its elements cannot rise ; and certain in- 
ferior limits below which they cannot fall. All the move- 
ments of science are in the direction of the doctrine that 
everything is especially calculated in the Divine plan. But, 
in the interests of the laws of nature which she worships, 
science recoils from the doctrine which she has almost demon- 
strated. We deny that there is any necessary conflict between 
the widest and most rigorous reign of natural law and the 
most specific provision for every event in the life of the Chris- 
tian. The sparkling satire which Mr. Pope hurls at the doc- 
trine of special providence, totally misrepresents it as requiring 
the suspension or reversal of law. Hear him : 

" Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause, 
Prone for His favorites, to reverse His laws ; 
Shall burning iEtna, if a sage requires. 
Forget to thunder and recall her fires ; 
On air or sea new motions be impressed. 
Oh, blameless Bethel, to relieve thy breast? 
When the loose mountain trembles from on high, 
Shall gravitation cease if you go by ? " 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 175 

Certainly not. But is it quite impossible that God should 
provide against our passing at so dangerous a moment, unless 
we can thus die at the ripest time for our good and His 
glory ? We admire the fixedness of Heaven's laws as much 
as Mr. Pope. We could not live a moment in a world of 
chance, and a world of continued miracle would be entirely 
unadapted to our mental economy. But we demand the 
proof that the minutest end of Divine tenderness requires the 
slightest suspension of the order of nature. 

Dr. M'Cosh, we think it is, who first suggested the fruitful 
idea of the accomplishment of special ends, by the exquisite 
adjustment of bodies and of laws. Let us embody his hint 
in a conception somewhat different from his own. Conceive, 
then, the material universe as consisting of an indefinite num- 
ber of moving forces, or rather moved atoms. What hinders 
that any particle or collection of particles should have been 
created at such a moment of infinite duration, and impelled 
from such spot in infinite space in such direction and with 
such energy of movement as to reach any chosen point at any 
given time ; and that any number of particles, or collective 
bodies, should have been so moved as at any required moment 
to maintain any desired mutual relation, and to assume as a 
whole any desired aspect ? One body may be moving in a 
bee-line to the destruction of another ; a third, charged with 
the orders of the Ancient of days, may so wing its measured 
flight as to cross the track of the assailant and lift away the 
victim in the very crisis of its fate ! Several forces may meet 
at a required angle and change their rigid lines of motion 



176 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

into graceful curves, or any number of them may assemble 
as relays at appointed stations, and, like steeds of varying 
strength and speed, wheel the Lord's artillery or the Lord's 
cars, freighted with mercy, in labyrinths that mock the Calcu- 
lus. But our conception is too simple. All action, mechan- 
ical, chemical, or physiological, produces, indeed, or destroys 
motion ; and, however numerous the impacts on a single body, 
there is only a single resultant movement. But the bodies in 
nature are diverse, each order having many-sided and pecu- 
liar relations to every other. Some brought into new prox- 
imities, develop sympathies or antipathies that have slumbered 
from eternity. There will, therefore, be not only the innu- 
merable original projections, of which we have spoken, but the 
immensely more numerous perturbations due to the action of 
body on body. The question is not whether it is hard to 
imagine how God keeps all things in motion without any 
natural collision, except such as suit a definite purpose towards 
all, and towards each ; but is it impossible to conceive that with 
absolute command of time^ and space, and degree of motion, God 
can execute a definite purpose in regard to every particle of mat- 
ter. It is hard for some to imagine their heads pointing with- 
out inconvenience in all directions which the rotation of the 
earth demands. It is harder still to picture a nail in a cart- 
felloe as never going backwards in absolute space, while the 
wheel revolves. It is extremely hard to imagine the moon as 
passing in every revolution directly between the earth and the 
sun, and its orbit still, as always, concave to both these bodies ; 
yet all these things so hard to imagine are demonstrably true. 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 177 

It is certainly unphilosophical to deny a well authenticated 
statement, which cannot be disproved, because a faculty, so 
easily bewildered in trying to follow the track of demonstra- 
tion, cannot realize it. 

Philosophers assure us that the perturbations of the planets 
conduce to the stability of the solar system. Can they assure 
that these disturbing actions of substance on substance have 
not been planned with a view to flexibility ? The man of 
science tells us " the Lord's steps are all ordered and they are 
all steady and strong.'^ " Yes," says the man of faith, '' and 
they are likewise all graceful and lithe." His flexible hand 
guides the blind atoms through their m.azy gropings to their 
predetermined station in the body of the forest oak. His deli- 
cate strokes have fashioned the light armor of the electric 
warriors, and His voice summons by name the picked aerial 
squadrons that hurl on the devoted tree their resistless charge. 
You are to-day constituted of innumerable atoms that since 
the dawn of time have been on their march to their present 
rendezvous in your bodies ; and notwithstanding their appa- 
rent revelry of motion, every step has been taken under the 
eye of the commander and with more than military precision. 
This, you say, is assertion. But it is assertion, founded on the 
Word of God, and within the limits of the conceivable. Can it 
be shown against us that God has not numbered the hairs of 
the heads of His people ? that He has not guided to its place 
each droplet of moisture which lends to their gloss, and each 
molecule of light which contributes to their color ? Is it too 
much for God to have moved by general laws every minutest 



178 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

thing to its present altitude in the face of nature, and to have 
given to the whole face and each most delicate feature an 
aspect of benignity to the Christian ? 

There might be supposed still greater difficulty in admitting 
that, the minute plans of Divine mercy to the saints, are not 
in danger of being disconcerted by the action of rational 
beings. Shall they not in misguided affection, or in the 
malignity, or caprice of their wills, thwart the details of the 
Divine scheme ? Discarding all subtleties about fate and free 
will, let us take the testimony of analogy on this question. 
You foresee the movements of great masses of men (quite as 
well as you do those of great masses of matter). You predict 
the actions of individuals even more confidently than you do 
the courses of the winds. And shall not God adjust His 
plans with reference to the conduct of intelligent beings? 
You can count upon the actions of men, quite as confidently 
as upon the operations of those parts of nature, with which 
you come immediately into contact. General Lee, who with 
such wonderful prescience, anticipated for so long all the 
movements of his enemy, doubtless understood General Grant 
better than he did the weather. A skilful player, not only 
foresees, but compels the moves of his antagonist. In the 
light of these illustrations, where is the difficulty of conceiv- 
ing God as controlling, without direct coercion some steps 
of enemies, and defeating others? Whether then, God 
brings wicked men and devils under close investment, 
or allows them the largest liberty of the field, there is no 
reason to doubt that He will weave their narrow and 



SERMON ON SPECIAL PEOVIDENCE. 179 

malignant wills into the web of His comprehensive and 
gracious designs. 

It is delightful to think how God works in our own 
wills towards inditing our petitions. You will probably 
pray to-night. God we think, will not absolutely and irre- 
sistibly, coerce your wills to certain petitions. Yet, He will 
so flood your mind with light, so quicken your desires, so 
distinctly present to you what you need, and ply you with 
such gentle importunate, almost imperious persuasion, that 
you will say we could scarcely help praying. Certainly if 
you are to pray ; He knows your petition in advance. He 
has understood your thought afar off. The trains have already 
been long on the way loaded, with the presents which God's 
children are yet to ask for. And my Lord will not delay 
His coming ! 



180 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

THE COUNTEY PASTOR. 

rpHE older reader will readily recall the col- 
lapsed and desolate condition in which Vir- 
ginia was left by the Civil War. For four years her 
fields had been trampled by contending armies, 
and her air had trembled with the roar of con- 
tinuous battle. Her towns had been transformed 
into barracks and hospitals. Not only had there 
been the great battles in which vast armies strug- 
gled for the mastery, but the raider, the barn- 
burner and the deserter, had penetrated in almost 
every nook and corner of the State, carrying waste 
and wreck everywhere they went. The Southern 
soldiers, scattered over every part of the State, 
bleeding with wounds, famishing for bread, and 
sometimes reckless in their necessities, had joined 
with the invader in consuming the substance of 
the old Dominion. When the end came, it was a 
tragedy ; the star of Southern hope went down in 
blackest night. The days which followed were 
so full of bitterness and despair, that many of the 
older people, stripped of strength and fortune, sank 



THE COUNTRY PASTOR. 181 

broken-hearted to their graves. In almost every 
family grave-yard, there Avas a soldier's grave ; 
sometimes it was the father, sometimes the brother, 
sometimes the son, and sometimes the husband. 
Many sat down amid the ruins of the Lost Cause, 
penniless and dejected, and felt that there could 
be no future for them. 

The country home, as if in sympathy with the 
destructiveness of the times, had sunken to decay. 
The farms were fenceless and overrun with briars, 
and reluctant to yield to the touch of its owner, 
just returned from the war. Slavery was gone, 
the State was without government or resources ; 
the people were reduced to penury ; the barns, if 
not in ashes, were emptied ; the conquered soldier 
was not permitted to bring home his sword that 
he might transform it into an implement of hus- 
bandry. It is enough to melt one to pity and 
tears, even now, to recall the discouragements 
under which our men undertook in the late spring 
of 1865, without suitable utensils or stock, to 
break up their grounds and set their crops. It 
is due to them to say, that with heroic alacrity, 
many of them promptly accepted the situation, 
went to work, and by indomitable energy, wooed 
prosperity back to their homes and fields. Those 
who sulked in despondency and cherished bitter 



182 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

memories, lost their chance, sank out of sight and 
left Virginia as an open field to her nobler sons. 

It has already been mentioned that A. B. Brown 
married in Pittsylvania County. At the time of 
this event, the father of his wife, was according to 
the estimate of those times, quite a wealthy gentle- 
man. In a partial division of his property, Mr. 
Wimbish, the father of Mrs. Brown, in accordance 
with her own choice, gave her portion in money, 
which was deposited in a Richmond bank; ten 
thousand dollars of which, were subject to her 
husband's order. Sharing the hopefulness of the 
times, they allowed this money to remain in the 
bank, and it was lost in the general ruin which 
came at last. Mr. Brown entered the army in 
1863, and continued in the camp until the autumn 
of 1864, when he was summoned home by the 
illness of Mr. Wimbish. He did not return to the 
army ; but remained quietly with his family till 
the end of the struggle. 

His home was situated on the border line of 
Pittsylvania and Halifax counties, and as his 
social and pastoral relations connected him with 
both counties, he usually spoke of the two together 
as equally his home. 

For, generations these counties have ranked 
among the most prosperous and influential in the 



THE COUNTRY PASTOR. 183 

State, and have been distinguished for the respec- 
tability and intelhgence of their citizens. They 
form an important part of that wonderfully fer- 
tile tobacco garden, so widely celebrated for pro- 
ducing the yellow leaf tobacco. 

Owing to their location on the southern border 
of the State, these counties were not so utterly 
wasted by the war, as were many other sections. 
In Mr. Brown's absence, his farm had been 
cultivated by his servants ; and at the end 
of the war, he had supplies sufficient for the 
opening year. His slaves, although liberated in 
April, 1865, remained with him till the end of the 
year, and, by their help, he was enabled to refill 
his storehouses in part at least. To this he added 
something by teaching a small school. The next 
year brought upon him severe trials. His former 
servants, naturally enough, grew weary of their 
confinement, and went forth to taste the sweets of 
their new liberty. This left him in an awkward 
dependency. He was not accustomed to the work 
of the farm. On account of his fragile constitu- 
tion, he was poorly fitted for enduring the hard- 
ships of the plantation, and all of his habits and 
tastes allured him in another direction. 

As best he could, and largely v/itliout help, he 
undertook the care of the farm. To those who 



184 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

knew him, there would be something incongruous 
and ludicrous, if there was not so much that 
was manly and pathetic in the picture of A. B. 
Brown turning away from his companionship 
with Plato, Hamilton, and his Greek Testament, 
that he might make bread, by the sweat of his 
face, for his family. It will bring a pensive 
smile even yet to the cheeks of many readers, to 
think of him as he followed the plow, dropped the 
corn, planted the tobacco, sowed the oats, fed his 
stock, watched the weather, and communed with 
his more practical neighbors about the knotty 
problems of the plantation. We doubt not that 
many of the old farmers chuckled in quiet glee 
at his awkwardness and blunders in his new 
avocation. They mistook greatly if they im- 
agined that he did not understand the agricul- 
tural art. He knew the science of agriculture 
with a thoroughness that was extraordinary, and 
v/hile he shrank from the details of a farmer's 
life, his native wit, enriched by ample culture, 
formed in his character the basis for success in 
agricultural life. 

His temporary divorce from books was like the 
enforced absence of a lover from the chosen of his 
heart. He practiced many a pious fraud upon his 
agricultural enthusiasm by whipping out his Greek 



THE COUNTEY PASTOR. 185 

Testament at the end of the furrow, and taking 
a sip at the fountain of truth. 

His old passion for teaching speedily revived, 
and young men whose education had been belated 
by the war, flocked to his house and sat at his feet. 
The impress which he put upon those youths abides 
even yet, and is plainly seen in their noble charac- 
ters and commanding influence. The grade of 
intelligence in his old community is higher to-day 
because of the fact that many of its citizens had 
A. B. Brown for their teacher in their boyhood. 

But above his love of teaching, was his devotion 
to the pulpit. Few men ever possessed such sub- 
lime views of the Gospel of Christ as he had. He 
walked the mountain heights. It was not long 
before the Baptist churches in his reach began to 
call him from his retreat, and he was not unmind- 
ful of their summons. 

A lack of space forbids anything like historical 
sketches of the various churches in his two 
counties, (for he claimed them both,) which from 
time to time he served. Their names, at least, 
deserved to be embalmed in this humble tribute to 
their now glorified pastor. They were. Mill Stone, 
Arbor, Ellis Creek, Greenfield, Shockoe and Ca- 
tawba, County Line, and possibly others. 

It may surprise some that a man of such sur- 



186 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

passing abilities and almost immeasurable learning, 
as was A. B. Brown, should be called to minister to 
country churches. 

In that respect he was a favored man. He 
had in the citizens which constituted his con- 
gregations, a higher type of though tfulness and 
spiritual maturity, than is usually found in a 
metropolitan pastorate. Country people do not 
see so much as do the town people, but they read, 
and think, and talk together, far more. They ex- 
tract more from one ripened sermon in a month, 
than many clattering and noisy townsmen pick up 
from the elaborate and stilted services, which are 
tri-weekly rendered in many great city churches. 
There is in the country people, a candor, and 
freedom, and responsiveness, which constitute the 
preacher's noblest earthly inspiration. 

Beside, in consenting to be a country pastor, 
Mr. Brown only followed in the wake of many of 
the most gifted and illustrious Baptist ministers, 
who have advanced the standard and enriched the 
record of our people. Time would fail to bring 
out even to momentary view our Baptist chiefs, 
who, in the past — as indeed, many are doing in 
the present — have eschewed the fastidious and 
exacting pastorates of the city, and devoted their 
whole lives to a well-contented service as country. 



THE COUNTRY PASTOE. 187 

pastors. There was the Elder Andrew Broaddus^ 
who, in the majesty of his person, greatly sur- 
passed, as in his graceful and thrilling eloquence, he 
stood a rival of Robert Hall. He was a country pas- 
tor, and is it not pardonable to say, that if his son, 
Rev. Andrew Broaddus, DD., of Caroline County, 
Virginia, falls below the eagle sweep of his father's 
eloquence, he is his equal in purity of character, 
and his superior in biblical learning, perspicuity 
of speech, and heavenly power to win men from 
sin to God. He, too, is a country pastor. There 
was Robert Semple — the counsellor, the organizer, 
and the historian. And later, in the same region 
of Virginia, arose Dr. Richard Hugh Bagby — the 
man of rugged face, but rich in scriptural knowl- 
edge, and one of the wisest pastors that the Bap- 
tists of Virginia ever had. There was Barnett 
Grimsley, the Patrick Henry of the Virginia pul- 
pit, with a voice of melody, a soul of love, and a 
tongue touched with seraphic speech ; no earthly 
inducement could ever allure him from his Pied- 
mont home and his country churches, to the trying 
scenes of the city. 

There was Reuben Jones, just translated from 
beneath the juniper tree, where he often wept, to 
the shade of the Tree of Life ; a Chesterfield in 
bearing, a poet in sentiment, with a soul full of 



188 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

genial humor, and a man of might with men and 
with God. For the bulk of his long career he 
was a country pastor. 

But the forms of brethren now gone, and of 
those who still live, swarm before my fancy an 
innumerable host. There they are — the Hern- 
dons, the Witts, the Leftwiches, the Aliens, the 
Harrises, the Rices, the Tyrees, the Dickinsons, the 
Sydnors, the Masons, the Lees, and many, many 
more not to be mentioned here, whose names are 
in the Book of Life. 

I may anticipate what is to follow later on, 
to the extent of saying, that the years spent by 
A. B. Brown, in his country pastorate, were the 
most growthful part of his life. While he kept 
himself abreast of the times in social and political 
movements; while he was genial and neighborly, 
and won the trustful affection of his people, his 
kingdom was in his study, and his King met him 
day by day in his closet. Occasionally, he sprang 
forth to public view, and whenever he spoke, his 
brethren heard him gladly. With each rolling 
year, his public utterances betokened the breadth 
of his research, and the freshness of his thoughts. 

As he grew subjectively, he grew in true and 
righteous fame. The people who had been afraid 
of him, took his measure anew, and saw that he 



THE COUNTRY PASTOR. 189 

was great. Soon after the war, Eichmond Col- 
lege, acknowledged his ability and worth, by 
conferring upon him, the degree o^ Doctor of 
Divinity. Perhaps it will be a friendly relief to 
the curiosity of the reader to say, that the degree 
of LLD., was given him by the University of 
Tennessee, in 1884. 

When he was offered the Professorship of Eng- 
lish, in our College, his churches were smitten with 
distress. They lamented his loss and yet, their 
devotion to him speedily adopted the generous 
suggestion, that their loss would be for his good. 
Every summer when his college work was done, 
he closed his home in Richmond, and hied away 
to his country home in Pittsylvania. His annual 
returns were hailed with joyful acclamation, and 
his successors, in the pastorate, vied with each 
other in kindly rivalry to bring him to the pulpits, 
and have him preach for his old charges. So well 
content was he to linger during the sultry days, 
in his beloved Pittsylvania, that it was hard to 
tempt him away for any purpose, except to plead 
the cause of Christian education. 

But we come now to the time when he preached 
his farewell sermons to his bereaved churches, 
and set out for that post at which, so lately, so 
suddenly, and so gloriously he fell. This chapter 



190 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

must not be closed, until some of those who were 
closely associated with him during his country pas- 
torate, have borne their tender tribute to his worth. 
First in the voices of grief and admiration, 
which come to us, from the neighborhood of his 
country home, it seems that, that of his beloved 
friend and associate in ministerial work, should 
appear at this point. This is what Eev. Wm. 
Slate, a man of God has to say : 

^^It will be my purpose to write something 
in regard to his worth and labors since I first 
knew him. I am glad it has been my privilege 
to know him for twenty-five years. I have 
been associated with a good many ministers 
in that time — I have never known a purer, more 
unselfish man. He was exceedingly liberal for his 
means ; in fact, I thought him too much so. I 
have been with him in meetings when different 
objects would come up, and I knew his condition 
well enough, to know, he was not able to give 
anything; but after some eloquent appeal he 
would empty his pockets of the last cent. I 
remember on one occasion at a District Association 
at Black Walnut (directly after the war) ; his 
noble wife gave him money to purchase a vest, and 
after a stirring appeal by Dr. A. M. Poindexter, 



THE COUNTRY PASTOR. 191 

in behalf of Foreign Missions, he got up and said: 
'Here is money my wife gave me when I left 
home to purchase me a vest, but the vest may go, 
and I will do without it — and Foreign Missions 
can have it.' At another time, in the General 
Association, when an urgent appeal was made for 
Richmond College, he gave his bond for more 
than he could afford to do — I told him so at the 
time — I was fearful it would trouble him to pay 
it ; and when the note fell due he was unable to 
meet it, and owing to the condition of the horses, 
he found it necessary to walk twelve or fifteen 
miles to look up one of his deacons, more highly 
favored than himself, for the purpose of getting 
that deacon to meet his note, and hold it up until 
his meagre salary was paid in, so that he could 
refund. Thus, you see he was one of the most 
earnest and devoted friends of Richmond College. 
He not only graced the Professor's chair, but every- 
where he went, he worked for the college ; and 
long years before he was made Professor, he gave 
his money and labor for its upbuilding. The 
general sentiment of the Baptists of this section 
is, that Richmond College never did a wiser 
thing than when they associated him with the 
Faculty. 

'^ Dr. Brown was not like a good many that could 



192 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

see the mote in his brother's eye, and not see the 
beam in his own eye. He saw his own faults and 
would admit them and try to rectify them. He 
was naturally an exceedingly kind-hearted man, 
and tried hard to help everybody, or give them 
some word of encourasrement. T remember dis- 
tinctly the first time I ever saw him. I was a 
poor orphan boy in Meadville, at school; going to 
school awhile, and teaching and doing the best I 
could to obtain my education. Some one told 
him my condition ; how hard I was working to get 
an education, and that I wanted to be a minister ; 
and he came round to me and placed his hand on 
my head, and gave me such words of encourage- 
ment as I shall never forget. The night the sad 
news reached me that Dr. A. B. Brown was no 
more, I could not sleep, for thinking about him 
and the noble ones that had gone before me — and 
several times that night I felt like I could feel the 
pressure of that hand on my head; and hear the 
words of encouragement he repeated to me then. 
" Brother Brown lived some fifteen or twenty 
years in Pittsylvania, near his wife's father. We 
labored together a good deal, have been pastors 
of the same churches. Shockoe, Greenfield, County 
Line, Eepublican Grove, were his churches for some 
time. In all of these his members were devoted 



THE COUNTEY PASTOR. 193 

to liim ; and I hear some of them express them- 
selves now — they say, truly, a mighty man has 
fallen — and they say that they feel almost as if 
one of their own household was gone. It was 
pleasant to work with Brother Brown, he was 
always so humble. No matter how much his 
speeches were complimented, or his sermons, it 
never seemed to puff him — and he was the same 
Brown — and would often say, ^you may think 
what I said was so good, but I don't think it 
much.' But the great and good man has fallen. 
May we all meet in that better land, where parting 

'' ""^ °^«''^- « Wm. Slate." 

In all the papers that will appear in this volume, 
this is the only one that comes from the pen of a 
woman. It is pleasant to introduce Mrs. Mary 
B. Lacy, the accomplished and consecrated Prin- 
cipal of South Boston Female Institute : 

"I first met Rev. A. B. Brown in the fall of 
1874. He was then pastor of Greenfield Church, 
and it was in that neighborhood that I made his 
acquaintance. I had the opportunity, long desired, 
of hearing him preach. His subject, was the Prodi- 
gal Son ; his audience an average country congre- 
gation. His treatment of his subject was all that 



194 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

could be asked even of him. I could not restrain 
my tears, and there were few there who could. In 
the family circle, at the house of one of his mem- 
bers, he showed himself the kind, pleasant, sym- 
pathizing pastor. It was evident from the affection 
of this family for him, that he knew how to win 
the hearts of his flock. Afterwards, my husband 
removed to Halifax, and we had the pleasure of 
an occasional visit from Dr. Brown. His name 
was a household word throughout that part of the 
county with which I was acquainted, and but 
one opinion prevailed — that his talents and learn- 
ing demanded a wider field, but that 'old Halifax' 
would sorely miss him, all of which proved true. 
One would suppose that as a preacher he would 
not be understood by the mass of the people, and, 
doubtless, in some of his most exalted moments, 
when the grand reaches of his imagination could 
scarcely find words even in his vast range of speech, 
he could not be followed by the majority of his 
hearers ; but even then, there was always an 
abundance of thought which could be appro- 
priated by minds of every capacity. So even the 
plainest of his hearers was pleased and taught, 
and all knew and valued his worth. I have heard 
plain practical farmers, with no school culture, say 
that they would rather talk to Dr. Brown and hear 



THE COUNTRY PASTOR. 195 

him talk than any other man they knew. He 
seemed at home on every subject, and he learned 
from any one who knew more than he did, whether 
the topic was one of literature, or agriculture, or 
mechanics. Last summer, at the Roanoke Asso- 
ciation, the writer heard him at night discussing 
the different modes of flue-curing tobacco, he evi- 
dently knowing all the theories, and desiring to 
prove which was the best, from the practical ex- 
perience of the farmers with whom he was talking. 
^'In conducting family worship, he was often 
very happy in his remarks on the passage read. 
I recall now a pleasant scene, his erect figure, 
his noble head, the kindly glance of his eye, the 
reverential tones of his voice, as he read the 
account of Cornelius' vision. How full of encour- 
agement to our hearts did he show the passage to 
be. ' We must not limit God's power by time and 
circumstance. No heart that truly cries to him is 
turned away.' ' Thy prayer is heard, and thine 
alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.' 
Doubtless in many a home in Pittsylvania and 
Halifax, these seasons of social conversation and 
worship are remembered with sad joy. Dear, 
noble, faithful minister of God, thou art endeared 
to us not by the splendor of thy intellect, nor the 
treasures of thy learning, but by thy sincere, un- 



196 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

ostentatious piety, and thy kindly interest in all 
that concern the true welfare of others. 

" One element of Dr. Brown's influence over 
others, was the respect he testified towards them. 
He was courteous, and friendly. He had a 
' hearty ' manner always, and a willing ear even 
to the plainest, and never seemed conscious that 
he had a claim to superior attention or respect. 
Thus he was ^ at home ' in the humblest cottage 
and in the richest mansion. His kindly heart 
showed itself in his tenderness toward children. 
The writer has seen him more than once go out of 
his way to salute most courteously a timid little 
child, when grown up folks were waiting and 
pressing to shake his hand. Thank God that such 
men have lived, and have shown the ^beauty of the 
Lord' to us. How delightful the thought that in 
Heaven we shall have their society, that we plainer 
folk shall also be glorified, and that we shall be 
' like Him, for w^e shall see Him as He is.' 

" Mary B. Lacy." 



Dr. Brown was a conscientious and outspoken 
Baptist. His convictions were the result of 
scholarly and prayerful investigation. There was 
no touch of the temporizing spirit in him. He 



THE COUNTEY PASTOR. 197 

was always ready to utter his opinions, and to fight 
for them. But he possessed a singularly enlarged 
spirit of brotherhood and charity. He could speak 
the truth in love, and toward those who differed 
from him he bore himself with a courtesy that 
was real and magnetic. Men who could not 
agree with him, could not withhold their respect 
for his honesty and courage. His relations with 
Christians of other names, were always cordial 
and fraternal. As a result, he was greatly beloved 
by Christian people of other denominations. While 
he lived in Eichmond, his pastor, who was slow to 
ask him to preach, lest he might do so to his bodily 
injury, sometimes playfully upbraided him with 
being more ready to preach for the Methodists and 
the Presbyterians, than he was for his own church. 
To this he would reply, " I can afford to deny 
you, but the other brethren might misunderstand 
my refusal." Since his death, many beyond the 
Baptist lines have come forward to honor his 
memory. I gladly give place to the subjoined 
paper, so chaste and beautiful, from a Presbyte- 
rian gentleman in South Boston : 

" A few weeks ago, when the sad intelligence 
came, announcing that that good and gifted man, 
Kev. A. B. Brown, DD., had passed from his 



198 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

labors on earth, to the rest and reward of heaven, 
a memorial meeting to his memory, was held at 
the Baptist Church here, at which time it was the 
writer's privilege to add his feeble tribute to the 
worth of his departed friend and Christian brother. 
I consider it a great privilege that I enjoyed the 
acquaintance and friendship of such a man. 
Although in the past sixteen years that I have 
known him we did not meet very frequently, and 
then only for short periods, from the freedom and 
cordiality of our intercourse, I think I can claim 
him for a friend. 

" I have heard him in the pulpit, as with incisive 
logic and matchless eloquence he has declared the 
love of Christ for sinners, and pleaded with them 
to accept Him as their Saviour; I have heard him 
in the Association advocating the various depart- 
ments of the church's work; and on all these 
theatres of his usefulness he was a grand man. 
Whenever he preached or spoke, he at once com- 
manded the attention of all, and there were none 
but delighted auditors. But to me it seemed his 
genius shone out with brightest lustre, and his 
soul poured out its highest aspirations, in the 
social family circle. It may be because here I 
saw him most, here I knew him best, and here 
he touched the tender chords of my heart that 



THE COUNTEY PASTOR. 199 

responded with love and admiration. Thus, when- 
ever opportunity presented, have I sought him 
there, and listened for hours as the rich store- 
house of his mind poured out its choicest fruits in 
words of purest English. As a conversationalist, 
Dr. Brown had few superiors. There was nothing 
superficial about him, and he at once impressed 
upon you that when he took up a subject he never 
stopped, until he had entirely mastered it, for he 
would begin with its inception and carry you 
logically through all its different stages of develop- 
ment to its highest results. 

" His ripe scholarship was seen in the fluency 
of his diction, and appropriate choice of words 
for the expression of his ideas, and by his wonder- 
ful powers of illustration. In the discussion of the 
most profound subjects he could so simplify that 
the most ordinary minds could comprehend. While 
he indulged in no lightness or levity, he could tell 
a good anecdote with so much point and force that 
all could appreciate its humor. 

" His death, at the period of his greatest useful- 
ness, is a loss to the Christian Church; for the 
influence of a man of his great heart and broad 
intellect cannot be confined within denominational 
limits. 

" May his life be an inspiration to others. 



200 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

that we may follow him even as he followed 

Christ. 

" ' Soldier of Christ, well done ! 
Praise be thy new employ ; 
And while eternal ages run, 
Rest in thy Saviour's joy.' 

"Joseph Stebbins." 

South Boston, Va., Dec. 16, 1885. 

To the foregoing papers, must be added yet 
another. It comes from the pen of Rev. S. G. 
Mason, an aged Baptist minister of Mecklenburg 
County, Ya. It is, indeed, a gentle and graceful 
tribute, and cannot be read without emotion : 

" I first met Dr. Brown at the General Associa- 
tion, held in Hampton, in the year 1849, and was 
introduced to him by the late A. M. Poindexter. 
Bro. P. said to me privately, ' He is a promising 
young man, and I have secured his appointment 
as missionary for the Dan River Association.' 

" It was during this period, that I was called 
upon to marry him, to the dear young sister who 
became his companion to the end of his life. We 
were much together on many important occasions, 
but particularly at the house of Bro. Poindexter, 
who was our theological instructor for a number 
of years. It had been my privilege for more than 



THE COUNTRY PASTOR. 201 

ten years to be under his trainings and now my 
young brother Brown became associated with me, 
and he, as well as myself, was greatly indebted to 
this prince of theologians and preachers, for the 
instruction which he received, and the liberal 
hospitality and friendship of Bro. Poindexter and 
his family. 

" While he was at Hollins we were much to- 
gether also, both at the Institute and in other 
places. In 1856, during the vacation, I obtained 
his services to assist me in a meeting at Black 
Walnut, Halifax. The meeting continued for 
seventeen days, and was the second best meeting, 
all things considered, I ever saw. About forty- 
five of the most valuable and influential people of 
the community professed conversion, and nearly 
every one of them has proven, by the fruits of 
their lives, that their profession was honest and 
true. Bro. Brown did all the preaching — two, 
sermons each day, — and they were certainly the 
finest series of sermons I have ever heard. This 
was the expressed opinion also of all the people — 
of all classes and all denominations. We were 
together all through the meeting, day and night, 
and never have I known one more in the true spirit 
of preaching than he was all the time. His ser- 
mons, while so grand and powerful, were still so 

M 



202 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

plain that the truths of salvation took hold of all 
classes, young as well as old, unlearned as well as 
learned. I think he never preached better. He 
himself enjoyed the meeting greatly. 

"In 1876 we were together at the meeting of 
the Dan River Association, held with the Winns 
Creek Church. I was pastor of the church, and, 
as usual, it devolved on me and the deacons to 
arrange for the religious services. For the second 
day we decided that Dr. Curry and Dr. Brown 
should preach to the crowd at the stand. Brown 
and myself were together the night before, and 
during the morning hours of the second day, and 
I knew he was preparing to preach on some gen- 
eral subject. Dr. Curry had just preached one of 
his most eloquent sermons, and we were all at the 
stand, waiting for Brown to come on and preach the 
second sermon. After some delay, I saw him coming 
np, stepping nervously, and when he reached the 
stand he said to me, trembling with excitement, 
' Sing a song, and give me some time to collect my 
thoughts. They have torn me all to pieces.' The 
Association had just passed a resolution requesting 
him to deliver a memorial address, at that hour, 
upon the life and character of A. M. Poindexter, 
and he had just been informed of the resolution. 
I felt the deepest sympathy for my friend, as he 



THE COUNTRY PASTOE. 203 

was SO suddenly called on, without time to pre- 
pare, and to follow such a powerful discourse as 
was Dr. Curry's. I was really afraid he would 
fail. But he had not proceeded far before all my 
fears were allayed. Well, I will not say that he 
excelled Dr. Curry in power and eloquence. But 
certainly he did not fall below him. I refer to 
this circumstance to illustrate the quickness and 
power of his intellect when roused by an emergency. 
"I suppose, as the result of our long and intimate 
associations, I knew him better than any living 
man, (if we except, perhaps, Charles L. Cocke,) 
and I desire to say some things about him. First — 
as a friend : The man was favored, indeed, who 
had secured his special friendship; modest and 
kind, just and true, communicative and confiding, 
and unchanging. Second — As a gentleman : I 
have but seldom met with his equal, and certainly 
never with his superior. Third — as a Christian : 
so humble and modest, so spiritual and holy, 
and yet so cheerful and hopeful ; such a lover of 
Christ and the brethren, such a lover of truth and 
righteousness, — so self-denying and cross-bearing. 
Fourth — But, if I had time and ability, it is of 
him as a preacher that I would like to speak. I 
have often said, and still think, that he was the 
strongest and most talented preacher we had in 



204 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

tlie State, next to A. M. Poindexter, and proba- 
bly his equal. His sermons abounded in the most 
extensive and accurate learning, the clearest and 
soundest logic, the most polished rhetoric, and 
sometimes the most powerful eloquence; while the 
subject-matter was always the purest theology, and 
the soundest orthodoxy. In the figures and illus- 
trations of his sermons he certainly excelled all 
that I have ever heard : always brief, but as 
clear as light : no redundancy, and no lack. The 
view of his hearer was always held to the thought, 
while the figure and illustration were unnoticed. 
As when looking on an object through a perfectly 
clear glass, the object is seen in all its proportions, 
while the glass is not noticed. 

"S. G. Mason." 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 205 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 



The most appropriate topic for the occasion is unfortunately 
very trite. It has often been discussed with great keennesss 
of analysis, with the widest comprehensiveness, with the utmost 
minuteness, and with the amplest wealth, and beauty of illus- 
tration. 

My experience in practical education might have been much 
greater without giving me any special qualification to discuss 
these topics. The farmer's business makes him very familiar 
with corn, yet he knows very little better than any other what 
corn is, and hardly at all better what it is intrinsically worth. 
The physician has precious little advantage over any other 
man in defining health, or in exhibiting its value. He would 
have no eminent fitness to deliver an oration on the blessings 
of health, though he might in his quiet way do much to pre- 
serve, promote or restore health, to remove or mitigate pain. 

The teacher maintains a similar attitude towards education, 
and has no special adaptation to explain, or urge, or indicate 
education. I shall not try to escape the triteness of the sub- 
ject, by limiting myself to the consideration of female education. 
Indeed I know not, whether there is any other female educa- 
tion, than the application of a common sexless education to 
females. The Romans had no word that named an individual, — 



206 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

gender. It is the nature which underlies the use of this word, 
that is the object, or, if you prefer, the subject of education. 

What if it were true that man's relative stature or weight 
any individual of the human race, — a word of the common 
is the ratio of his intelligence to that of woman? It no more 
follows from this, that he should have another education, than 
that he should have another diet. What if it is true, that the 
average male intellect is more characterized by strength, and 
the female more by grace and beauty, though I incline to think 
this is not true to the extent those would insist who hastily 
make the physical form the type or the exponent of the mind. 
There is much poetry, there is doubtless some truth, in the 
position, that the mind of woman is in some vague sense the 
complement of that of the man. It is not true, that either 
has a faculty, that the other wholly lacks. Their ultimate 
faculties, absolutely the same, therefore male aptitudes may be, 
probably are, slightly varied, so as not only beautifully to 
blend, their different contributions in the drawing-room, but 
to render their interaction at the fireside an almost indispensa- 
ble utility and not a mere luxury. 

But whatever differences may exist, will assert, and the 
more healthily manifest themselves, when these so closely 
kindred minds are nourished by the same generous pabulum. 
I confess I never could see the differences, that some seem to 
find, between the mental organizations of the sexes. 

It may be owing to a mental defect which I have to lament, 
a want of equal capacity, or even equal inclination, to read 
the broad label of a class. Take a favorite distinction between 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 207 

man, as a logician and a woman as an instr notionalist If it 
existed to any great extent, then, indeed the development of a 
logical power is one of the great designs of education — there 
would be the less need, and the less hope of female culture. 
Woman, it is maintained, seizes a truth by intuition, or an 
indefinable instinct — does not get by logic, and cannot logi- 
cally explain it. Man sets out to his object on the logical road, 
goes often grandly, gloriously wrong. He takes note of his 
error, tries again in the same highly respectable manner, often 
exhausts all the possibilities of mistakes, and at least marches 
regularly, proudly to the truth. The woman is less certain to 
get there at all. If she anticipates him, as is not unlikely, she 
reaches the point by a happy guess or divination, if she clearly 
apprehends it as absolutely true. Now there is precious little 
truth in all this. 

Ladies, intelligent by reading, observation and experience, 
have seldom the training, in the statement and elaboration of 
their processes of thought, of highly educated men. 

But in this they do not materially differ from sagacious, 
practical men. It was not a woman, it was Andrew Jackson, 
that said to a friend, " I always knew I was right, but till you 
explained it, I could never see how." It was not to a woman, 
but to a strong-minded English squire, that Lord Mansfield 
said, appointing him to a magistracy, " Pronounce your opinion 
with confidence, it will most probably be right ; forbear its 
development and vindication, which will almost certainly be 
wrong." If there is any essential difference in the reasoning 
powers of the sexes, if with equal discipline they do not reason 



208 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

and elaborate reason with nearly equal patience, dexterity and 
success, I have not made the discovery. The slight diversities 
in the operations of their respective faculties render it more 
difficult to apply a common measure, and decide upon their 
equality or equivalence. Thus much may, I think, very safely 
be said. It is too early to affirm very confidently, that there 
never will be a female Bacon, till there has been, and been for 
some considerable time, a female Oxford. 

Woman has achieved great success in almost every walk of 
genius. The first great lyric that history records, was the 
improvisation on the banks of the Red Sea, of stern, high- 
souled Miriam — honored name afterwards, softened and 
sweetened into loved and blessed memory. And Sappho, 
desperate from unrequited love, ending a sad life at the 
" Lovers Leap " in Epirus. She was, with the enthusiastic 
Greeks, the first muse. A great Poet pronounced her more 
golden than gold. About forty lines left here, are assigned to 
the brightest page in the Onthologies. 

For eloquence, most strictly, woman has had no sphere. 
Though the daughter of Hortensius, pronounced before 
Tyrannicus an oration, which Quinctilian says, " was long 
read, and not read as a compliment to the sex." The mother 
of the Gracchi asserted for women, that superiority in letter- 
writing, which she has ever maintained ; and she contributed 
much to the eloquence of her sons. And a similar account 
might be given of much missing female oratory. 

Woman, in generous self-oblivion, has ever been con- 
tributing much to the eloquence of her sons. Li statesman- 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 209 

ship, a woman is nothing, unless she is a queen ; and there 
have been truly great queens. To say nothing of Semiramie 
and others, about whom there may be, I know not how much 
of the fabulous. Think of that unlettered peasant girl, after- 
wards Catharine of Russia, who greatly helped in the con- 
ception, development and the criticism of the schemes of the 
Czar, and long survived him for their successful execution. 

Think of that great queen who sat on the British throne at 
the meridian of British enterprise and literature. It has been 
thought one of the highest gifts of a Washington and a 
Jackson, that they knew how to form nnd how to rule a 
Cabinet. Who has more skilfully constructed, or more 
sovereignly controlled a Cabinet than Elizabeth. I may not 
pause, to select a few from the roll of female names that have 
shone with conspicuous brightness, not in the lighter litera- 
ture only, but in those more exacting walks of science. It 
may suffice to say that the time has gone by, when on the 
appearance of some great work produced by a lady, the 
remark was made, " She writes very well for a woman." 

But whatever the diversity of gifts and aptitudes, there may 
be in the sexes, you need never fear educating any true 
womankind by giving the girl, the very same education in 
extent and vigor, which you give to the boy. Not more 
surely will she appropriate the same atmosphere, the same 
water, and the same food in the structure of her own beautiful 
form, than she will assimilate her spiritual element in har- 
mony and into harmony with her feminine nature. The little 
girl will be guarded and cautioned with a sedulous, sometimes 



210 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

with a too sedulous care against tom-boyism. And as she 
grows up into society, her tastes, her interests, her whole 
nature, are a constant and generally sufficient protest against 
the simulation — it could be but the simulation of a masculine 
coarseness. But by all means let us avoid the starving of 
the female mind into a feeble and sickly beauty. Health is 
not the cause, but the condition of the highest beauty 
(changed the final word). This is all I deem it fit to say on 
the matter of sex in education (Interposed 1st, my experience 
in teaching; 2d, female .) 

What is education ? — I exclude the consideration of physi- 
cal education — it is the orderly development of the powers of 
the mind by presenting it to an indefinite extent, with the 
systematized objects of thought, and fixing in it those objects 
of thought. You cannot evoke power, without furnishing 
thought, you cannot exercise power without improving the 
arrangement and increasing the extent of your knowledge. I 
fear that certain definitions and descriptions tend to disparage 
the importance of gaining and retaining the truth. It would 
appear that everything is to be evolved from within. This 
view drawn wholly from the etymology, not from the use of a 
Latin word — is not even, with certainty, suggested by the 
etymology. A diflerence of the inflection of the words for 
educate and educe, though it does not necessarily infer, yet 
strongly hints a difference of radical meaning ; and a very 
respectable lexicographer does not hesitate to assign to edu- 
cate, a distinct obsolete root. 

The two words are sometimes employed interchangeably, 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 211 

and notably, by one author, not of the highest rank, for the 
rearing of the young ; but neither of them for what we call 
education in its highest sense. It was stated, not in the form 
of a personal opinion, but in that of a maxim: "The 
mirse educates, the pedagogue institutes, the master teaches." 
Perhaps, however, those who remind us of this etymology 
mean only, that the literal meaning of the word might happily 
express the true functions of education, Now I shall admit, 
and even contend, that the chief end of education, is more to 
develop, than to store the mind. That it is intended to 
render the mind more like a fountain of living waters, than a 
reservoir ; made more like an all-producing factory, than an 
all containing warehouse. Indeed, there is a sense, in which 
those who make least of the discipline of powers, and insist 
most on the communications of facts, and facts as individuals, 
as they can well be conceived, must admit, that the powers of 
the mind in whatever development they have for the time 
reached, must alone be addressed; and information, strictly 
speaking, cannot be imparted at all. The simplest fact, the 
signs of which you present by the living voice, must be con- 
structed for itself, by the mind addressed. Even the library, 
which, with sufficient correctness, we term rich in thought, is 
in vigorous language, rich only in the symbols of thought, 
which cannot be decanted, but must be reproduced and inter- 
preted by each intellect for itself. The memory which plays 
so indispensable a part in the slightest and most spontaneous 
advance from first principles, which cannot be forgotten, and 
constitutes so much of the mind at rest, and scarcely less of 



212 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

the mind in motion, must indeed be cultivated. But the 
training of the memory bears no necessary ratio to the 
intrinsic vakie of the things committed to it. The mother- 
goose melodies, are in themselves as valueless, as any that 
can be imagined; may afford better training for the young 
memory than a volume of equal bulk, stored with most valua- 
ble bitter training for the young memory ; than a volume of 
equal bulk, stored with most valuable recipes for housekeepers 
and farmers. 

Much of the discipline of the schools, is wisely adapted to 
stopping the leaks of the memory, and to enlarging rather 
than filling of its capacity. Yet it would be most unjust to 
educators, to say that their instructions are mere whet-stones 
of thought and memory ; the difficult trifles of the Greeks and 
Romans, the sharpening riddles of the puzzlers' realm of 
the newspapers. Far, far from it. They have among them 
mapped the whole sphere of present knowledge ; they have 
traced the lines of growth; they are putting the youth of 
the country upon all, or nearly all, the great roads into its 
departments ; they are training them to rapid and swift-footed 
movement ; they are preparing them for the widest outlook 
over all, and the minutest inspection into any. But we are 
vexed, that their instructions are not more directly available. 
Now, it is hard to say, what is the most useful and available 
form of a large and diversified provision. I suspect that none 
of us, are inclined to complain, that all the minerals of the 
earth are not on the surface, all the fertilizers, in the form of 
products, and all the products of nature and of human skill, 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 213 

are not in readiness for immediate use. Education gives us 
fundamental truths, the skill in reaching which, prepares for 
their various applications : Compact, portable, general truths, 
each of which can rally its cohorts of obedient followers. The 
epitome of truth which it furnishes, necessarily meagre in 
some directions, in the aptitudes which it trains, and in the 
readiness with which it can be expanded, is of far more value 
in the acquisition and skilful use, than a much larger amount 
of miscellaneous knowledge gained with less vigorous and 
systematic exertions. 

The mathematics occupy, and justly, a high position in the 
general system of education. The vitality of their lowest 
branches has never been questioned ; their vitality is even 
much greater as a vigorous drill, in practical logic ; available 
wherever severe and systematic thinking is to be done, and 
as furnishing the surest clue for threading the labyrinth of 
nature. 

The physical sciences, like the mathematics, besides evoking 
a high discipline of the faculties, bestow invaluable knowledge, 
by no means magic in amount, and among the most certain of 
all in kind. The very best work of the schools, both as a 
discipline and an instruction, is in introducing mind to a better 
acquaintance with itself. Mind cannot be vigorously exercised 
in any direction apparently most objective, without throwing 
important reflex light on itself. But the best discipline, the 
best knowledge, is acquired when mind is the direct object of 
the study of mind. Pope has said, with universal approval, 
that the proper study of mankind is man. The old oracle 



214 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

fixed the very centre of Pope's circle, when it uttered the 
brief apothegm, " Know thyself." Well, that aphorism is the 
text of true teachers, however seemingly remote, his depart- 
ment, from the domain of mind. It is especially the text 
of the metaphysician and the linguist. And I may add, that 
the knowledge of mind, sagacity in reading mind, is the 
highest degree of common sense. Yet how often is it lament- 
ingly or sneeringly said, that the educated man lacks common 
sense. He may lack special education in many common 
things, and in many phases of human character, as he will 
lack many other special trainings. But, if with all the 
instructions of the class-room, all the associations of the mess- 
hall, and all the encounters of the campus and debating so- 
ciety, he is really wanting in common sense, he has carried to 
college a sad feebleness, or a sad eccentricity of endowment. 
But the complaint is really of a piece with the derision of the 
city boy's ignorance of many things common in the country, 
and of the country youth's greenness and awkwardness in 
town. The schools put the mind on the analysis of itself, 
and its own products ; the only analysis which is not dissec- 
tion, the only decomposition that is not death, but more 
vigorous life. They bid it study the only agent which 
can busily work and leisurely survey its own work ; the only 
one who can patiently and profoundly feel and at the same 
time calmly criticize and record its own emotions. They send 
it forth acquainted with its powers, the better prepared for all 
its explorations, but to find, save its greater Creator, greater, 
nobler, than itself. Him it finds everywhere, but not fully 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 215 

witnessed and imagined in the organ of thought. The study 
of language, scarcely inferior to mental science as a revealer 
of the general attributes of mind, is far superior to that, and 
to everything else, as exhibitor of the details of mind itself 
and the delicate and subtle processes of thought. Language, 
considered as to its contents, is all science and all literature, 
except the literature, if such it might strikingly be called, 
that is built into monuments, carved from marble, or cast in 
bronze, or inscribed on canvas, or evoked from tubes and 
strings. It cannot be studied apart from all contents, and is 
generally studied in connection with one of the most precious 
of them. But language itself is the most precious product of 
human thought, its richest element, the indispensable instru- 
ment of all its highest achievements, its fitting dress and orna- 
ment, the almost exclusive channel of its communication. It 
is strong enough to weigh the most weighty (and the most 
heavy) speculations of the philosopher, light enough for the 
most airy imaginings of the poet, as flexible as human caprice, 
as harsh as the thunders of indignation, as gentle as the tones 
of love. And what of all human creatures can compare for 
grandeur and beauty with the word-buildings of the most 
admired of the historians, and essayists, and poets, and orators? 
Language, that sufiices for all human revelation, is the chan- 
nel of God's revelation to men. This is the true Prometheus 
that has brought down the true fire from Heaven. We are 
not surprised that nominalists were betrayed into a sort of 
idolatry of the human mind as God. Who but feels the 
value of language as an acquisition, and who that has paid 



216 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

any attention to the action of his own mind, but highly values 
the discipline which the acquisition furnishes and implies ? 

My limits preclude further reference to the value of the 
branches of the commcmly received systems of education. I 
must briefly consider the value of the systems as a whole. A 
practical view of this value will be gotten by comparing the 
chances for success — true success — in the life of the man who, 
thoroughly trained in this system, supplements it, of course, 
by a special school, an apprenticeship, or an immediate 
entrance on the practice of a vocation, and the youth who 
goes with little or none of this general drill to the special 
school, the apprenticeship, or the trade, or profession. It will 
not be denied that there are educational influences outside of 
the school, but to all of these the academically disciplined are 
even more open than to others. Business does not educate 
dexterities, but evolves mind in all its capacities. But will it 
do the best ? Let us make a freer comparison. Do not com- 
pare the boy that goes with enthusiasm into the work of the 
factory, the counting room, or the farm, and the boy who, 
feeble or perverse in mind, hearing, a thousand times, that the 
time spent in school is, for all practical purposes, time wasted, 
is dragged through a course cursing the day of Caesar's birth, 
disgusted with Euclid, and all the mathematicians, nauseating 
all poetry and all science. Of course the boy in business will 
get immeasurably the best training, mental and moral. Let 
it be admitted that the average youth, full of mental activity, 
does not accept the restraints of a business with the highest 
alacrity, yet, encouraged by its more obvious utilities, he will 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 217 

more heartily prosecute the work of the shop than of the class- 
room. Oh, if the love of science were as easily developed as the 
love of gain, if the professor had altogether as docile a pupil 
as the merchant, what might not our schools accomplish ? 

Sometimes, indeed, there will be awakened a literary ambi- 
tion, intense above all other passions. But though the aver- 
age student takes less kindly to his work than the young 
specialist or apprentice, we may well abide by the results of a 
camparison between them. At first the recipient of the prac- 
tical education, so-called, has the advantage The girl who 
has been reared to industry in the household, will right off sur- 
pass her who has passed three or four years in the seminary, in 
every branch of housekeeping. The young farmer of fifteen 
or eighteen will distance his brother, fresh from college, in all 
practical matters, from the harnessing of a buggy horse to 
the pitching of a crop. The young clerk will easily outstrip 
the young algebraist in adding a column, in calculating interest, 
in stating an account. Many a lad, with scarcely one hun- 
dredth part of your graduate's knowledge of mathematics, 
will bring him to blush in his first efforts in surveying and 
civil engineering. Only wait a little, and the graduate will 
manifest his decided superiority. If the business or profession 
be of any considerable extent, he will have completed his 
general education, his professional training and gained practi- 
cal skill before his rival has much less successfully accom- 
plished the two last. And his knowledge will be more 
comprehensive and accurate, and, moving less in the ruts of 
formula and tradition, he will adapt himself more readily to 

N 



218 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

the changes now occurring more rapidly than ever, in the 
business of life. He will triumph, in the purely professional 
contest. And he will do, with less danger of filing himself 
down, to a narrow and sharp instrument. His skill in his 
specialty, will be a necessary but small part of a full and sys- 
tematical development, as a citizen and man. We are not 
unwilling, to compare the scholastically educated man with 
the so-called self-made men. We might question the justice 
of the application of the term. The man who uses books and 
professors to fashion himself, is as well entitled to use names 
as he who forms himself by any other means. Better, certainly, 
than he who is drifted by the waves of faction into some 
especial prominence, or than he who is moved by social cur- 
rents and ground like a river rock into shape by social col- 
lisions. But there are many truly great men, who are nothing 
to the colleges. And America is the paradise of such self- 
made men ; with its atmosphere exciting universal aspiration, 
its institutions offering impartially unrestricted opportunities, 
its primary schools, its pulpit, its bar, its hustings, its newspa- 
pers, its travel, all kindling and cultivating mind. 

Now, much the larger amount of original talent must be 
receiving the extra academic discipline. Almost all the trea- 
sures of human wisdom are accessible to the self-taught in 
English; I may not say plain English, for our half- Latin 
language is not specially plain. Is it not a convincing evi- 
dence of the superiority of the college discipline, that so much 
larger a proportion of the collegially trained, have successfully 
appropriated and utilized these treasures. Make the most of 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 219 

the number of wrecked and sunken collegians. Survey for a 
moment, it can be but for a moment, the multitudinous habits 
of the self-making. Then count, for you can count the rare 
few of the self-made whose heads are still above the waters of 
oblivion. And when you find the really great self-made man, 
does he so tower, as it is sometimes claimed, above all rivalry ? 
Political life, is the most favorable arena of the self-made man. 
Here he has some advantages. He is the recognized leader, 
or rather, representative of the masses. He is what so many 
men would have been if only fortune had smiled. While it 
cost almost any body an eflfort of reflection, to repress a feeling 
of contempt for the simply average college-bred senator; 
so many would have outstripped him, if they had had his 
opportunities. But getting more easily into positions of trust, 
does he fill them more to his country's good and his own 
honor? In ordinary times where statesmanship is more a 
routine, he is less acquainted with precedent, and more a slave 
of what he does know. In times of revelation and new 
departures, this original man is less original, and less a master 
of the situation. It is then that the regularly educated, the 
Jefiersons and the Madisons, compare most favorably with the 
most favorable specimens of the self-made — the Shermans and 
the Franklins. As our industrial, professional and political 
life, becomes more and more highly organized, highly educated 
mind is coming more and more to the point. 

Education mainly develops powers, and trains to their 
facile employment ; so far as it communicates truths they are 
truths of wide generality. If the acquisitions of the schools 



220 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

barely lived in the mind, till it took hold on the practical 
employments of life ; after five years of commercial, agricul- 
tural or professional life, nothing remained but the vigor once 
acquired, and most applied to different objects, and the better 
facilities for interpreting other minds, living and departed, 
the education they impart would be of very great value. It 
is to be feared, that many quite well educated men content 
themselves with this simple benefit. Men of great powers 
immersed in business, suffer even their professional knowledge 
to lose its roundness and philosophic arrangement, and keep 
themselves bright in the facts and doctrines of which they 
have £ equent need. The scholar finds it at first, less easy than 
when he left school, to read his Horace ; after a while, too 
great a labor, to make the reading other than an irksome 
task, and at last an impossibility, without the renewal of 
elementary training for which he has no patience, and con- 
ceives he has no time. This ought not to he. One's education, 
strictly so-called, ought ever to abide for the needful renewal 
and completion of his youthful drill. The educated man can 
no more safely, make the employments of his vocation, or a 
miscellaneous reading, a substitute for his old curriculum, 
than the soldier can substitute the battle, or the duties of the 
encampment and the sentry — for the manual of the cadet and 
the camp of instruction. 

This course renewed frequently, returned to, does more fully 
for the mind, what the Grecian Gymnasium and fine games 
did for the body, than anything else. I believe that it is an 
evidence of increasing success in our current education, that 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 221 

the graduates of the period return with increasing ease and 
relish to their earlier studies ; and especially to the classics. 
As more time is given for the vocabulary to imbed themselves 
in the memories, and to be as permanent there as the forms 
and the philosophy of the languages — the return will be more 
pleasant and profitable. 

What we have once thoroughly learned, if not too long 
neglected, we rapidly renew, easily retain or easily recover. 
The second reaping will be scarcely less developing labor than 
the first, and the aftermath will often be the best crop. 
Something very like an ideal of what a scholar should have 
in view, in the preservation and extension of his academic 
life, is exhibited in the person of Lord Macaulay. After he 
had long held rank among the ablest debaters and the most 
brilliant orators of the British House of Commons ; after he 
had achieved a position above all rivalry, in the foremost 
literary review of the world ; after he had digested the chaos 
of Anglo-Hindoo law into a code, which in other merits, and 
specially in luminousness of method and precision of state- 
ment, is said to compare favorably with the code of Livingston 
or the code of Napoleon ; whilst oppressed with the govern- 
ment of 100,000,000 of India, and under the enervating 
influence of that climate ; he seizes as a period of only com- 
parative leisure, and reads from cover to cover, Homer, 
Herodotus, Xenophon, Plato, Thucydides, all the extant 
Greek poets; the voluminous writings of Cicero, and all 
of chief excellence in Roman literature ; much of this he reads 
again and again. He jots down his impressions at each read- 



222 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

ing — pronounces his matured judgments, always original and 
independent, generally brilliant, though not so studiously 
splendid in his finished composition. Of what incalculable 
value was an education that made such review possible, and how 
must the review itself have repaired, polished and tightened 
up all the machinery of this mighty mind. Compare the 
course of the same man, in another branch of study. He 
early took up, and cultivated a disgust for mathematics ; he 
would write to his mother sprightly invectives against a study 
that would dry up his imagination and convert his mind into 
an algebraic formula. 

Of course, at Cambridge, he must have learned a good deal 
of mathematics, and with a good deal of disciplining on his 
mind. But he failed of the highest honors of Cambridge, to 
the deep wounding of his noble and afiectionate father, who 
felt that the failure was solely due to a foolish whim. In 
middle life, Macaulay reverts to the matter. "1 would not," 
said he, " turn upon my heel for the honor of being senior 
wrangler, but I would give a great deal for some of the 
mental habits which the gaining of the honor would have 
established." Why did he not go back to mathematics and 
get these habits ? 

Why do we not all do the things which we know we ought 
to do, but which would now require a great labor, and which 
we have contracted a habit of neglecting and disliking ? The 
relations between education and religion are very intimate, 
more so than that between education and any other great 
practical interest. If we were a mercantile association, or a 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 223 

state grange of farmers, we should feel that general education 
concerned us, but concerned us in common with all others, 
and we might well be content to avail ourselves of such edu- 
cation as society in general should patronize. But in com- 
mon with all the denominations we feel that education in all 
its grades has much more intimate connections with Christi- 
anity. 

If Christianity is true, scarcely more for its own sake than 
for the sake of sound culture itself, it should seek to promote 
the most harmonious relations with education. And certainly 
it can be most sure of this harmony, when it is most directly 
the patron of the schools. 

It is the higher education, however, that most notably 
affects religion. No difficulty emerges in Theology, which is 
not found converged in philosophy. 

The deep soundings of science, bring it into the plane of 
theology, whether its altitude there, shall be one of deferential 
co-operation, or of hostility of supreme importance. It is the 
younger sciences especially that, like some young barbarians 
we have heard, vindicate their claims to manhood by vehe- 
ment, if not vigorous, blows at the bosom which nourished 
them. Though it is at least a presumption for the truth of 
the Bible, that it has avoided the committal of itself to any 
scientific dogmas, yet it is of consequence that the teachers 
of science be heartily loyal to revelation. Geology in hostile 
hands will deride it as of yesterday in comparison with her 
own vast eras ; and Astronomy, from the perch of her dizzying 
dimensions, will laugh at the littleness of its theatre. Espe- 



224 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

cially will an irreverent and destructive criticism of historical 
myths, aim to involve Christianity and all the monuments of 
antiquity, in one indiscriminate ruin. But apart from all 
polemical reason, Christianity has a higher interest than any 
other institution, in the classical languages, the very centre and 
support of our present truly liberal system of education. I 
think it will be admitted, that if the spirit of modernism and 
intense practicalism breaks down classical instruction, the sys- 
tem will fly to pieces, and we shall have its scattered fragments 
in the form first of polytechnic schools and the arts, lastly of 
apprenticeships and trades. Who, is so concerned as Hamil- 
ton has well suggested in these languages. 

Suppose that the substance of past literature can be decanted 
into translations, who so concerned as the church in versions 
of the highest accuracy and in the means of increasing indefi- 
nitely their accuracy. 

Look at the present attitude of the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and much of the learning of the Church of England, 
invoking the scholarship of all denominations in England and 
America, to assist in improving the version of one single 
ancient volume. Who but Christians could, or would, or 
should spend so much time and money, in such an enterprise? 
Will they finish it ? Will they consent to destroy the means 
of its vindication, its preservation, its indefinite improvement ? 
Never. Christian scholars will ever be laboring to bring 
themselves, and as far as possible, all others to the nearest 
earshot. 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 225 



An extract from an address of Dr. Brown, on 
Female Schools, made at Warrenton, Ya.: 

* * ^ It is now high, time to help those dear women and 
those friends of women that have been so long and so gloriously 
struggling, without material aid, in the cause of female educa- 
tion. Is it not a marvel that, while no male college is attempted 
to be run without buildings presented gratuitously, and without 
endowment, there is scarcely a female school in Virginia which 
does not pay rent for its buildings, and not one which has a 
dollar of endowment? The success of the female schools has 
been little short of a prodigy of financial skill. The liberal 
and patriotic spirit which has characterized the management 
of these schools has been more commendable, and equally 
wonderful. It is no secret that "the literary department of 
every female school was formerly (indeed, to a considerable 
degree is yet) dependent for support on the ornamental de- 
partment. Yet the managers of these schools have been 
regularly, at a risk and a sacrifice, changing the relative 
prominence of these two departments, till the solidity of female 
education compares favorably with any tuition dispensed in 
the State. All honor to the men and the women, of all de- 
nominations, who have brought about this result. To the men 
of my own denomination who have grandly labored in this 
cause for the last thirty years, I am bound by peculiar ties. 
I have been the pastor and co-laborer of Cocke and of Hart. 
I have been the pastor of Averett, Penick, Vaughan and 



226 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD.LLD. 

Lake. If I have been committed to impartiality, it is not the 
impartiality of indifference, but the impartiality of anxious 
and sorrowing affection. There has been no unmanly or 
unchristian strife among them, for they are brethren; but 
there is a struggle for existence. And I must stand aloof with 
melancholy resignation to the doctrine of the survival of the 
fittest, which — being interpreted according to true Darwinian- 
ism — is the strongest. 

There is one manager of female schools in Virginia who 
lies out of this circle of neutrality, and of whom I may speak 
in terms of highest praise without danger of exaggeration. 
I mean Miss Sallie B. Hamner, of the Richmond Female 
Institute. A born ruler, a skilful financier, a consummate 
organizer, a thorough scholar, an accurate and enthusiastic 
teacher, a model of grace and majestic beauty, she has sum- 
moned to her aid the unrivalled teaching ability of Prof 
Winston and a corps of accomplished and experienced lady 
assistants. It is well for her that there is now no interdict on 
the tree of knowledge ; else she might justly fear the fate 
which Pope apprehended for Lady Mary Wortley Montague : 

" If our first mother Eve great pain did receive, 
"When only one apple ate she, 
What punishment new shall be found out for you, 
That in tasting have robbed the whole tree ? " 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 227 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE COLLEGE PROFESSOR. 

TN the reorganization of Richmond College, at 
the close of the war, the old curriculum was 
abandoned ; and in its stead the system of inde- 
pendent schools was adopted. Owing to the wreck 
of its endowment, the college resumed work with 
only five professors. But in 1867, Dr. J. L. M. 
Curry, who at the time of this writing is U. S. Minis- 
ter to the court of Spain, was added to the faculty, 
as Professor of English and Philosophy. This 
position of double service Dr. Curry filled with 
distinction, until January, 1881, when he resigned 
to become superintendent of the Peabody fund. Plis 
retirement was regarded as a grievous loss to the 
college, and great anxiety was felt by its friends 
that satisfactory arrangements should be made for 
supplying the vacancy. The matter was placed 
by the trustees in the hands of a committee whose 
report was not presented until the annual meeting 
in the following June. 

The recommendation of the committee was, that 
separate chairs of English and Philosophy should be 



228 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

established; and that a professor should be elected 
for each. This suggestion of the committee not 
only commanded the hearty concurrence of the 
trustees, but found a warm sanction at the hands 
of the friends of the college all over Virginia. For 
the chair of Philosophy, Eev. Wm. D. Thomas, D.D., 
a distinguished alumnus of the college, and of the 
University of Virginia also, was with great enthu- 
siasm chosen. The names of several gentlemen 
of ripest culture, and highest renown as teachers, 
were presented to the Board as peculiarly fitted to 
fill the chair of English. It so chanced that on 
the night preceding the election, that Dr. A. B. 
Brown appeared in the commencement exercises 
of Richmond College as the final orator of the 
two Literary Societies. 

It was known, however, that he would speak 
under disadvantages, having been called upon but 
a little while before to take the place of one of 
the most brilliant orators of the country. To 
some of the trustees Dr. Brown was so well known 
that he needed no introduction; but there were 
others who had never heard nor seen him. Per- 
haps the walls of the college never echoed more 
thrilling notes of eloquence, than rolled from his 
lips that night. His address was chaste, compact, 
discriminating, profound, and glowed with a fiery 



THE COLLEGE PROFESSOR. 229 

passion which lifted the crowd into the wildest 
enthusiasm. It marked him not onl}^ as an orator, 
but as an accurate and well rounded scholar. 
Even his admirers felt, that he had never done so 
well before. There had been some of the trustees 
who, from the time of Dr. Curry's resignation, felt 
that Dr. Brown above all men ought to have a 
place in the teaching corps of Richmond College, 
and were anxious to have him invited to the chair 
of English. But they had hesitated to present 
his name, lest others might not be prepared to 
appreciate his worth. 

After his magnificent oration, thej ventured to 
bring his name before the Board in honorable com- 
petition with others of the highest character. The 
result was his election — a result which surprised 
no one so thoroughly as himself. He was no 
applicant, and had not even received a hint that 
his name would be mentioned for the place. The 
news of his election was electric. Trustees and 
other friends of the college were exultant. No 
man rejoiced over the event more than did Dr. 
Curry, who expressed the feeling that it was an 
honor to him to be succeeded in his work by such 
a noble Christian scholar. It so chanced that Dr. 
Brown was engaged to dine that day, with others, 
with Dr. Curr}'- ; but as the news of his election 



230 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

went forth, gentlemen made haste to call upon 
him to express their satisfaction and urge him 
to accept the position. To his surprise, he found 
himself the lion of the day, and blushed at the out- 
burst of enthusiasm of which he was the subject. 

A homely incident which occurred at the time, 
will illustrate the popular delight which was 
excited by Dr. Brown's election. 

One of Dr. Brown's old pupils, the wife of a 
trustee of the college, and a resident of Richmond, 
was an ardent champion of her old teacher. She 
never grew weary of telling how he taught her 
Sir Wm. Hamilton's metaphysics, or of urging that 
the Baptists of Virginia, ought in some way, to 
utilize his great scholarship. His name was a 
household word, and even the children had come 
to think that Dr. Brown was the mightiest scholar 
of the day. She had a boy, a little up in his 
teens, who was just ending his first session a.t 
college. This youth drove the carriage to the 
Second Baptist Church, to take his trustee father, 
with invited friends, to dinner. He slipped into 
the room, to notify his father that the carriage 
was waiting for him, as it happened, just at the 
time the election of Dr. Brown was announced. 
He vanished like a ghost, forgetful of the message 
and the carriage, double-quicked home, sprang 



THE COLLEGE PEOFESSOE. 231 

into tlie door, threw the house into consterna- 
tion, by the wildest shouts — and when called to 
account, informed his mother of the good news. 
It has been said, that the announcement, while it 
quieted the boy, came near to turning the mother 
to demonstrations equally vehement, if not so 
noisy. This spirit of rejoicing went afar. The 
Baptist ministers, and the old pupils of Dr. Brown, 
the two classes that knew him 'best, were greatly 
rejoiced. But after all, perhaps none hailed the 
event, with such profound satisfaction as the 
members of the College Faculty. 

I have dwelt more at length upon this seemingly 
insignificant incident of his election, than may 
seem to the reader necessary. It has been done 
to show, that there was a conviction wide-spread, 
and deep among the people, that Dr. Brown 
ought to be chosen to some position worthy of 
his imperial gifts, and his enriched culture. 

Dr. Brown was not, in any technical sense, 
specially adapted to the teaching of English. He 
could have taught (and this is not thoughtlessly 
said) any other branch in the college equally well, 
and some of them he could have taught more 
easily, because, they lay along the favorite ranges 
of his life-long thought. This is particularly true 
of mathematics and philosophy. Some superficial 



232 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

critics hinted, that Dr. Brown's introduction into 
the faculty, might become a source of disharmony. 
It was known that a score of years before, on 
one or more occasions, his temper had gotten the 
better of him, a thing which some people could 
never forget. How little they knew the man ! 
How little they had dreamed of the complete 
conquest which he had long ago made over his 
natural infirmity.' How little they understood 
that reigning courtesy of his nature — that sweet 
compound of strong self-respect, personal purity, 
love for men, and yet, richer love for God. He 
could never have caused strife anywhere. He 
carried in himself, a modesty which forbade his 
trampling upon others, and a gentle dignity which 
would have disarmed almost any form of hostility. 
In the gentlemen composing the Faculty of Rich- 
mond College he found a congenial brotherhood, 
and when he sat down at their Board, they took 
him to their hearts. He entered at once into 
their plans, and became a cordial co-worker with 
them, in their labors for the college. In his nature 
he was conservative and conciliatory. He was 
no champion for innovations; what his brethren 
advocated, he was always disposed, so far as he 
could, to promote. In a little while, and by no 
effort of his own, he rose to the highest seat of 



THE COLLEGE PROFESSOR. 233 

honor among them. They were proud to hail him 
as the greatest of them all — not only in purity 
and scholarly power, but in the ineffable gentle- 
ness of his spirit. They saw in him a man, not 
only wondrously endowed, and amazingly rich in 
attainments, but yet more wondrously meek, self- 
forgetful and Christ-like. The tributes from his 
fellows, which will appear hereafter, will readily 
show what the Faculty of Richmond College 
thought of Dr. A. B. Brown. 

But the class-room was his happiest realm. 
From the first morning that he stood before his 
classes and spoke to them his words of greeting, 
he was the master of his pupils' hearts. Perhaps 
the first sight of his thin face, his weird form, and 
his somewhat faltering and awkward step, may 
have brought a smile to the boyish faces of his 
audience. But the kindly flash of his eye, the 
magnetic ring of his voice, the manliness of his 
words, and the warm, fresh strength of his thought, 
showed him at once a man, whom they could love, 
and must respect. In the matter of discipline, in 
his classes, he had little trouble. Now and then, 
a stolid and prankish fellow, blind to the stuff of 
which Dr. Brown was made, would venture to be 
impertinent. He rarely repeated the experiment. 
The indignant teacher transfixed him with a look, 



234 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

and scourged him into shame, with the little finger 
of his power. He never fretted, or higgled, with 
a noisy or unmannered boy; he simply squelched 
him by a touch of honest rebuke. 

But these cases were rare, indeed. In his classes 
he met young men, who could not fail to respect 
a noble character. They loved him for what he 
was, and heard him for what he said. He had an 
easy task in winning the attention of his classes. 
He was very genial and accessible. He often 
regaled the boys with humorous incidents, and 
yet oftener with the happy flashes of his own 
charming wit. He drew the boys to him by the 
delicate courtesy and ready kindness with which 
he treated them. If they had troubles, they 
knew that he would give them sympathy. If 
they touched off" a little cracker of wit, he was 
always ready to respond. Between him and the 
students there speedily grew up a good fellowship. 
He always spoke of them with fondest pride — 
and they always had the finest things to tell about 
him. His influence, therefore, in the college was 
healthful and elevating. He talked to the boys 
on noble themes, and stimulated them to better 
thinking. 

But, after all, his strength was as a teacher. 
He knew how to teach, and magnified his office bv 



THE COLLEGE PEOFESSOR. 235 

the love of it. He was the master of his work, 
and made it attractive. He knew how to impart 
knowledge, and he knew better how to evoke the 
knowledge of his students. He drew the students 
out, giving them confidence, by his sympathy, to 
tell what they knew. 

He was ardently devoted to his professional 
work. He was engaged, year by year, in such 
collateral studies as would help him to broaden 
and improve his course — and for each recitation, 
he prepared himself with an ever fresh assiduity. 

Mr. M. S. Wood, one of the ministerial students, 
who was a member of his class and in whom he 
was much interested, says of him : 

" No one rejoiced more than I did in the election 
of i)r. Brown as a professor. He had been a visitor 
at my father's home when I was a mere boy, and 
I well remembered the impression he made on me 
then, by the freshness and vividness with which 
he clothed an anecdote, and by the fluency of his 
conversation. 

" Those who did not know him before his com- 
ing, soon learned to feel for him the affection of a 
friend, and to regard him as the prince of teachers. 

" To help others seemed to be his great aim. 
He never seemed happier than when assisting 



236 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

some one to master a difficult task. If a question 
asked bj a student was so unimportant and easily 
answered that it would evoke the smiles of the 
class. Dr. Brown always answered courteously and 
kindly. But if a student — as they sometimes 
will — asked worthless and irrelevant questions, 
with the evident purpose of wasting the time of 
the professor, no one could more successfully j&oor 
him, leaving him with closed lips to lament his 
folly, than Dr. Brown. He also won a large place 
in the hearts of the students by his patient hearing 
of, and kindly sympathy with, any trouble or 
perplexity they might bring to him. If he could 
not remove the trouble, he would so tenderly 
sympathize, that the student always felt great 
relief. As a counselor he was exceptionally wise 
and faithful, having wonderful ability for measur- 
ing the capacity of a student. I shall never for- 
get, and trust I shall ever profit, by the privileges 
I have had of meeting him in private and hearing 
from him words of advice and encouragement. I 
felt that no one outside of the family circle had 
sustained in his death a greater loss than I, and it 
seems that this was the feeling of all who knew 
him intimately. I shall ever thank God that he 
was my teacher and my friend. As some majestic 
oak, towering above the surrounding growth, and 



THE COLLEGE PROFESSOR. 237 

with sturdy arm resisting the tempest's fury, yet 
affording shade for the sporting lambs, and leafy 
branches for singing birds ; so Dr. Brown stood, 
loftily and grandly, amid the great, the noble and 
the good, and yet drew around him the humble 
and less favored — and was to them a comfort, a 
help, an unspeakable blessing. 

"M. S. Wood." 

Another student, Eev. P. G. Elsom, the popular 
pastor of Fulton Church, Richmond, Ya., who was 
then a member of his class, says : 

"I count it an honor and privilege to have been 
taught by Dr. Brown. I was deeply impressed by 
his willingness to help others, in proof of which 
I will give one illustration, and could give others 
if minded. When selected by my Society to be 
its final orator, and not being at all satisfied with 
my oration, he invited me to his stud}^, and gave 
me kindly helpful criticism, and words of comfort 
and cheer. What we do for others lives. Many 
will rise up and call this man blessed for his help 

*° *''^- " p. G. Elsom." 

No man had a better opportunity of watching 
the career, and measuring the influence of Dr. 



238 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Browrij at Eiclimond College, than Dr. C. H. 
Ryland. As financial secretary of the college, he 
had his office in the institution, and was brought 
in frequent contact with him. In the subjoined 
paper, Dr. Ryland gives his estimate of the teacher, 
and his work. The reader will find the paper 
strikingly fresh and suggestive : 

"When Dr. A. B. Brown was elected Professor 
of the School of English in Richmond College, it 
was universally conceded that the institution had 
secured a master-workman. 

" Professor Brown was eminently qualified for 
this position by broad and accurate learning, to 
which a vigorous and inquisitive mind made con- 
stant acquisitions. 

" The college was a congenial home, and afibrded 
the mental stimulus he so incessantly craved. If 
a Greek class was at work upon Thucydides, that 
father of philosophic history, he delighted to enjoy 
it with them; if original examples were pro- 
pounded in higher mathematics, the Professor of 
English made their solution a pastime ; when 
abstruse and subtle questions puzzled the class in 
philosophy, he revelled in their discussion and elu- 
cidation. It was thus, that in the school of 
ceaseless thought, he kept his mind fresh and 



THE COLLEGE PROFESSOR. 239 

vigorous, and from deepening fountains drew that 
wealth of illustrations which so enriched his 
instructions. 

"Dr. Brovms thorough knowledge of linguistics 
made his appointment to the school he accepted, 
peculiarly appropriate. As teacher of English, he 
could lay his hand upon the resources of ancient 
and modern languages, and make them all tribu- 
tary to thorough training in his mother-tongue. 
In the practical work of teaching, Dr. Brown won 
constant laurels. In the Eecitation Room he was 
very popular. He always came before his class 
the master of the subject in hand, and with a mind 
overflowing with the richest and ripest results of 
thorough research. The student felt the mastery 
and admiration was kindled. But while the pupil 
saw that his Professor was superbly equipped for 
his work, and stood before him an intellectual 
giant, accomplished in the use of every weapon, 
there was nothing in the professor's bearing to 
intimidate the most distrustful learner. His man- 
ner was winning; he treated each man in his 
class with kind consideration; encouraged the 
dispirited, stimulated the laggard, and impressed 
those before him with his genuine and abiding 
sympathy with them. One of his class said, ^I 
believe Dr. Brown appreciates a good thought 



240 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

from one of us as much as if he found it in Aris- 
totle.' This was true, and while there were occa- 
sionally those who took undue advantage of his 
kindliness and sympathy, there were many more 
who were saved from discouragement, and stimu- 
lated to strive for eventual success. 

" Nor was the Doctor s teaching confined to 
his immediate classes. His wonderful versatility 
brought all the college to his feet. He was ency- 
clopedic, and many of the " hard questions " which 
arose in the multiform relations of student life, 
were referred with entire confidence to him. His 
genius was the admiration of the college. 

" Two other attractive elements contributed to 
his success as a teacher : his enthusiasm and his 
power of illustration. 

" He loved to soar, but he could plod as well. 
When occasion required it, he could leave the 
heights of the philosophy of language for the dull 
road of rudimentary instruction, — the structure of 
sentences, the syntactical relation of words — with- 
out any seeming abatement of interest ; and over 
both he constantly threw the charm of fresh and 
appropriate illustration. His philological studies 
were exhaustive, and he never wearied in tracing 
the derivation and meaning of words and sur- 
names. To this he added a fund of anecdote, 



THE COLLEGE PEOFESSOR. 241 

which seemed inexhaustible and which was used 
with skilful tact to render his class-room genial 
and to point the highest moral. 

Professor Brown shared in the general work of 
caring for the spiritual as well as the intellectual 
welfare of those under his charge. If one taxed 
his brain, the other weighed upon his heart. Not 
infrequently mind and heart united to pay tribute 
to his high calling of professor in a Christian insti- 
tution. It is the custom in college to have from 
the faculty and others, lectures on Biblical and 
kindred themes. When it was known that Pro- 
fessor Brown would deliver one of these, not a 
seat would be vacant. The writer recalls his 
address on ' The Authority of the Scriptures,' as, 
perhaps, second to no effort of his life in power 
and brilliancy. 

"It may not be inappropriate in closing, to 
say, that in entering upon his college work, Dr. 
Brown's friends were not without solicitude ; first, 
in rcG^ard to how he would bear the strain which 
they knew must inevitably come upon his nervous 
system from laborious, routine work, and daily 
contact with young men and boys, not always 
appreciative or studious; and also for his health — 
never robust. 

"All anxiety, in regard to the first, soon passed 



242 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

away. His college-life was marked by rare equa- 
nimity, purity, unselfishness and beauty. No 
teacher ever more successfully won and held the 
respect and affection of ^the boys/ while a brother 
professor could say, when his work was done, 
' Both by faculty and students, he was the best 
loved of us all.' 

''It may not be out of place to give an incident 
which will illustrate the affection and deference, 
with which he was treated by the students : One 
day as he was borne along by the inspiring theme 
of his lecture he dropped his spectacles. He 
picked them up and put them on upside down. 
The effect was irresistible ; there was a titter — 
then a laugh. For the first, and only time, so far 
as I have ever heard, the doctor lost his self-pos- 
session and dismissed the class. The room was 
cleared, but no sooner was the hall-way reached, 
than the cry arose : ' It will not do ! It will not 
do ! Dr. Brown must not think we meant to treat 
him with disrespect !' Three of the older men 
were deputed to return at once and explain the 
cause of their involuntary merriment, and ask 
their loved professor's pardon. When they went 
in they found him with a look of indignation upon 
his usually kindly face. But no sooner had their 
case been presented than he joined in the laugh. 



THE COLLEGE PEOFESSOR. 243 

and patting the three upon their shoulders in 
the most forgiving way, said, ^ It is all right — tell 
them it is all right !' 

"Anxiety in regard to his health was never 
relieved. He would say, facetiously, ' I am never 
sick, and yet never well,' and by strength of will 
and great prudence, rarely missed a recitation; but 
it was painfully evident that his valuable life 
hung by a very frail tenure. He passed away on 
the night of November 27th, 1885. 

" A hush, deeper than was ever known before, 
fell upon the college when it was whispered, ' Dr. 
Brown is dead !' His grave, in beautiful Holly- 
wood, was piled high with flowers, the gifts of 
trustees, faculty, students, friends — a mute, but 
wholly inadequate expression of the bereavement 
which has fallen upon Eichmond College. 

"C. H. Eyland." 

The Virginia Baptist Historical Society invited 
Dr. Brown to be its orator on the occasion of its 
anniversary, which was held in Grace Street 
Church, in June, 1881, during the time of the 
General Association. The following is the ad- 
mirable address delivered before the assembled 
hosts of Virginia Baptists : 



244 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 



HISTORY AND ITS MATERIALS. 



It is a true remark, that all literature is in the widest sense, 
history. It is barely possible that a poem might contain 
nothing of actual fact, and nothing true to nature. But its 
emergence into being, at a certain point in space, and a 
certain period of time is a historical fact. A writer may mis- 
represent every one else, and everything ; but he is compelled 
to paint truly, his own full picture, at least, some features of 
himself and his epoch. But history, though holding relations 
to all knowledge, has its peculiar department, as differentiated 
by its own characteristic works. It essays to paint the moving 
present, in the very gesture of movement ; and to paint it on 
a stationary canvass, and to reproduce the dead past in the 
freshness of life. The artist must dissect in his study, but his 
picture should not smell of the anatomical hall. He must 
paint the once agitated sea of human passion, but with the 
obtrusion of no theory of the winds and tides. The reader, 
or according to our figure, the spectator wants facts in their 
contemporary relations, and in their causal dependence. To 
be sure, whether the facts are related to each other in casual 
sequence, or in true lineal descent, is to be learned from the 
clearly expressed features of the facts themselves. A pro- 
found philosopher severely abstinent in, if not totally abstinent 



HISTOEY AND ITS MATERIALS. 245 

from philosophizing ; a moralist, whose moral is imbedded in, 
and not appended to his story ; a witness that gives the truth, 
the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and never argues 
a case ; the perfect historian were indeed a prodigy. Lord 
Macaulay justly says, that we may sooner expect to see 
another Shakspeare or another Homer. But we have real 
history and history of priceless value. We should doubtless 
have had much more history, and history of much higher 
value, if its materials had been more industriously gathered 
and more carefully preserved. If in other words, such service 
as this Historical Society undertakes to render, had been 
better performed. 

How much richer had the world been, in real historic 
knowledge, if the marvelous powers of Herodotus and Livy 
had been exerted on authentic monuments rather than dcA^oted, 
in so large measure, to the compiling and embellishing of 
myths and romances ! 

It is the function of history, a function often very inade- 
quately executed, to interpret all other literature, to fix the 
time and place of its creation ; to account for its possibility 
and its peculiar physiognomy, to project background, and to 
hang it in its just light. It would seem for instance, that the 
unity of the Iliad ought to be one of the simplest problems ; 
yet, it is to-day, a vexed question whether the unity of great 
poems, or congeries of poems, is the unity of individual 
authorship, or the unity of a school of bards. 

We know further, that Agamemnon and Achilles owed the 
immortality of their fame to the great heralding, or the great 



246 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

herald. We know that subsequent ages owe much to the 
great poem. We can never know how much of Homer's 
wondrous riches he inherited, and how much he created ; but 
history, besides illustrating for Milton and Pascal, a wide 
range of otherwise unintelligible allusion, debits them with 
almost their precise indebtedness to the past, and audits and 
avouches their claims to large and precious contributions, to 
the language and literature of their respective countries. 
Great writers are the intellectual legislators of mankind. 
History gives us the occasions, the immediate purview of their 
statutes, and the usus loquendi of the very words in which 
these are written. We have said that every author paints at 
least himself; but this is to be taken with an important limi- 
tation. Often a small section of his soul finds employment in 
his work, or his whole soul operates in a fieid too narrow to 
give him full expression. We have a scantling, a precious 
scantling, indeed, of Euclid's mind, only in its severe but 
prolific logic, exhibited in a single department of thought. 
His heart, his experience and all but a fragment of his acute 
intellect is lost for want of history. 

Biohop Butler lives principally in a few sermons, and his 
Analogy, probably the most sober, judicious, accurate and 
utterly unassailable of all merely human productions in its 
class of subjects. That his immortal work is not merely the 
mechanical product of his cautious and powerful intelligence, 
but the true reflex of his inmost convictions, we make no 
doubt. But, how fully his entire life conformed to the truth 
so powerfully advocated, we know not. Compare with him. 



HISTOEY AND ITS MATEEIALS. 247 

Samuel Johnson, better known to us in his inimitable biogra- 
phy, than in his own voluminous writings, far more self- 
revealing as they are, than those of most authors ; and see the 
difference between the influence of a great work and a great 
life, fully presented. It is man that we are most curious to 
know ; it is man that it is most helpful to know ; man in and 
beyond his carefully selected self- registrations, in and beyond 
his more prominent actions. It is man that history attempts 
to present us ; and for that large class of great workers whose 
instrument was not the pen, but the tongue of fire ; and who 
have transfused their quickening thought, their constraining 
will, their kindling sentiment — into other minds and hearts — 
we must look to history alone. 

The epic poet justly claims an interest in the great scourges 
and the great benefactors of the human race. Let him im- 
agine below the lowest depths of human atrocity, still lower 
depths ; let him gild the gold which has been refined in the 
fire of trial and persecution. Yet it is the prerogative of 
stern, sober history to hang beastliness, falsehood and cruelty 
in the most torturing pillory ; and place genius, and virtue, 
and courage on their highest pedestal. History takes com- 
mand of all truth, and marshals it in procession before us. 
Science, especially the more exact science, presents truth in 
the light of the reigning fashion, branded with no dates, 
ticketed with no cost marks — all projected on a near plane 
which faces us. Truth is exhibited not in the intricate, cum- 
brous — sometimes not very rigorous — demonstrations ; but 
tersely, methodically, in the light of self-evidence, or in that 



248 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

of the plainest possible logic. The forward school boy passes 
over in a few months ground which it took humanity centuries 
to traverse ; sees clearly what the vanguard of human progress 
saw dimly, or saw not at all. Doctrines, which are the par- 
venus of the decade, jostle on terms of intimacy through old 
families, compared with which the Howards are of yesterday. 
We are greatly obliged to science for a method of instruction 
so much to our profit and enjoyment. History comes forward 
now to restore every point of this projection to its original 
place. She arranges these truths into corps, divisions and 
regiments ; moves them back in sections at a time, halts each 
individual at its place of emergence ; large divisions are sta- 
tioned at the doors of certain great men, whole armies are 
halted at certain productive epochs. The whole host is 
marched back, resuming on the way its ancient uniforms, 
platoon and an individual resting for review at the appro- 
priate station, till the whole field of a continuous civilization 
is echeloned over with the multitude which had just consti- 
tuted the dressed line of the present. The mathematical 
column drops out its calculus, its conic sections, its logarithms, 
its decimal notation, its trigonometry, its geometry, its arith- 
metic, till the weakened is reduced to the Pythagorean 
multiplication, preserving to the last its old Greek nomencla- 
ture. Chemistry soon loses its dizzying array of facts, its 
wide generalizations, its batteries, its earths and alkalis, and 
disappears in its wide search for universal solvent and philoso- 
pher's stone. Geology soon dismisses her seams, her dips, her 
strikes, her ligands and lichens, and sinks debating (for it is 



HISTORY AND ITS MATERIALS. 249 

the way of the exact sciences to debate), whether she is born 
of water or fire. 

But time would fail to follow the procession and witness 
retiring to their assigned posts the spectroscopes and the celes- 
tial maps of yesterday, the grand generalization of Newton, 
the patient and invaluable inductions of Kepler. The sys- 
tems of Copernicus and Ptolemy tell that proud Astronomy, 
which some think exhibits the glory of La Place more than 
the glory of God, dwindles into the speculations and observa- 
tions of Chaldean shepherds. All the arts are distributed 
over the past, even those which would seem to be the neces- 
sary products of human skill, telling a story of incalculable 
toil. All the political and moral truths, even those which 
now seem the simplest axioms and tritest commonplaces, 
reminding us of ages when challenged as wild paradoxes 
and daring innovations — they are now standing ground with 
tears and blood. Let them now all be bidden back to their 
present places, and they will come invested with new interest 
and new charms. They will come attended with that retinue 
of associations which makes truth easy to the memory and grate- 
ful to the taste. They will come back exhibiting direction and 
rate of movement of each department of knowledge, and sug- 
gesting to every lover of the orderly progress of truth, where 
to seek employment. And I suspect they will teach as em- 
phatically as anything else that history, so hateful to every 
other branch of knowledge, itself must needs to be helped. 

And Clio, the muse of History, is more than ever calling, 
and calling not in vain, for aid from all her sisters. She 



250 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

summons Philosophy as an expert, presents her the names of 
ancient rivers and mountains, and takes her confirming or re- 
butting testimony on the migrations and settlements of ancient 
races. She appeals to Geology and Meteorology to know whether 
the denuded and barren slopes of Palestine could ever have 
exulted in a fertility and beauty which extorted the unwilling 
admiration of the naturalist Strabo, and the prophet Balaam. 
She studiously examines the models of ancient ships, finds how 
many points they could sail against the wind, questions wit- 
nesses on the habits of the capricious currents of the air, 
inspects the recorded accurate soundings of the British Navy, 
and then describes with utmost precision the drifting on the 
Mediterranean of an Alexandrian corn-ship, which could not 
sink with a greater than Caesar on board, and its going to 
pieces in a vain struggle with the tenacious anchorages of 
the harbor of Malta. We are glad that modern historians 
are scanning the past with severe criticism. Even their 
hypercriticism, though not to their honor, is overruled for good. 
Science and scientific criticism bring out some new truth, cor- 
roborate much more old truth, and explode much more old 
error. Of necessity this criticism can more easily tell what could 
not have been than what was. It is mainly negative, and has 
been correctly named destructive criticism. So much professed 
history, in which truth and fiction mingled in tantalizing pro- 
portions, invited rigid examination ; and the skeptical criticism 
developing its methods and sharpening its instruments by prac- 
tice on the myths of profane history, confidently turned them 
against the fundamental monuments of Christianity. And Chris- 



HISTORY AND ITS MATERIALS. 251 

tianity welcomed the examination with dignified confidence; 
submitted to pert and irreverent questioning; courted a search 
into her inmost sanctities ; pressingly invited a hostile investiga- 
tion, to walk about Zion, count her tombs and mark well her bul- 
warks. Her confidence has been justified ; her ancient monu- 
ments have defied hostile criticism. By this time the world 
ought to be satisfied that the Church is founded upon a rock. 
The same opposition to evangelical truth, which assailed it at 
its birth, is still maintained. But apart from this, mankind 
appears more determined than ever to know the precise truth on 
every subject. The physical sciences, which are more than ever 
studied, furnish mathematical or experimental demonstra- 
tion. It is not strange that the habit should be formed of 
demanding in other departments of knowledge, an evidence 
which the volume of the case does not furnish, and especially 
the truth of history. A philosophical system utterly ground- 
less, may as vigorously, though hardly as healthfully, exercise 
the mind as one embodying the truth. A novel may present 
us, in a new ideal aspect, facts of human nature familiar to 
our experience and observation, it may formulate our know- 
ledge in striking and convenient expression, and even make 
some contribution to the actual development of that know- 
ledge. It would be absurd to draw one's facts from a novel, 
instead of bringing the novel to the standard of known facts. 
But falser than any romance, except a political novel, which 
appeals to the prejudices of the distant readers for its general con- 
formity to truth, and which evades responsibility for the special 
form of the libel by pleading poetic license, nothing can be 



252 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

inore misleading than much that passes under the name of 
history. A romance which should project the essential ele- 
ments of life in its own age upon a distant place and time, 
would be less erroneous than a grave history recording what 
neither happened nor could happen at any period. The light 
which shines upon the present and the near future, issues 
mainly from the past. If, then, our light be darkness, how 
fatal is that darkness. False history is a false chart, and 
false sailing directions — a wrecker holding out deceitful 
beacons. Yet there have been eras when fictitious or uncer- 
tain history was followed with a reverence not due to the 
real. The present is never the servile imitator of the past. 
History never fully reproduces itself, and therefore much 
sagacity is needed in adapting its instructions to present use. 
Yet the precedents of a history in which fable and truth have 
been indiscriminately blended, have been the rigid formulas 
according to which the statesmen of routine have essayed to 
bleed again, and blister again, into health, the body politic. 
In days not very long since past, mankind seemed to prefer 
for their guidance as well as their amusement, the legends of 
heroes and demi-gods to the well-vouched experiences of their 
fathers. Almost every line which the eloquent and graceful 
Livy wrote on the traditions of ancient Eome, survives. 
Almost all the labor he bestowed on its really historic periods, 
has been labor utterly lost. We rejoice that a new attitude has 
been assumed toward the past, that while modern civilization 
is cultivating a most affectionate interest in the explorations 
of the mounds of western America, and in the excavations of 



HISTORY AND ITS MATERIALS. 253 

Babylon and Troy, it is subjecting their revelations to tests as 
varied and as rigid as those of the laboratory ; and we rejoice 
that in the nearly hopeless search for the distant past, they are 
not neglecting as soon as the life is fairly out of the present, to 
embalm it for eternal preservation. 

The recent movements to organize effort for securing the 
material of history, are all the more hopeful, as they are but 
one branch of a much wider enterprise, whose interaction will 
help to sustain them. The bureaus of Washington City are 
plying the farmers of the country with questions calling out 
facts, in aid of a more exhaustive and scientific treatment of 
agriculture. They are imploring every old man of leisure to 
furnish them the daily range of his thermometer, and the 
hourly shiftings of his weather-cock. They would set every 
idle boy to recording birds and caterpillars, and forwarding 
his observations. They supply every vessel, that sails to 
distant coasts, with bottles to be dropped into the sea with a 
sealed statement of the place and the time, that their floating 
may indicate the drift of the currents of the ocean. While 
around us there is the stir of a concerted effort to gather and 
sift, and co-ordinate and generalize facts, for the guidance of 
the future ; it is timely, it is seemly, that the Christian Church 
should take her appropriate part in a great movement. The 
ship that bears so much precious life, and so much precious 
freight, should be careful in her sounding, incessant in obser- 
vations, and scrupulous and accurate in keeping her log- 
book. And yet, Christianity, which has preserved in her 
libraries, almost all that has been preserved of Pagan Greece 



254 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

and Rome, has been less careful of her own history, than of 
anything else. We find no regular attempt at church history 
till after the Council of Nice, in the fourth century ; before 
this, there were great, rapid and wholly silent revolutions in 
the form and spirit of Christianity. It is really wonderful, 
that while the Church was engaged in questions about the 
person of our Lord; questions, many of them altogether 
frivolous and presumptuous, and questions about the proper 
time of Easter, as trifling as the Big Indian and Little Indian 
controversy of the Lilliputians ; a deluge of change passed 
unrecorded over the early simplicity of religion. We should 
be compelled to admit, that the Christianity of the fourth, fifth 
and sixth centuries was primitive Christianity, if this did not 
involve, that there was in the apostolic age, a body of un- 
written truth, wholly distinct from the written ; and incon- 
sistent, indeed incompatible with it. And while it is easy to 
show that there were innovations, we are at great disadvantage 
in meeting them, from the silence of history. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 255 



A PART OF AN ADDRESS ON THE ADVANTAGES 
OF A COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 



I PROPOSE to maintain before you, mj hearers, the supe- 
riority of thorough collegiate training over every other, as a 
preparation for any profession, business, trade — in a word for 
any legitimate walk in life except, perhaps^ the very lowest. 
I admit in this statement, that scholastic and collegiate edu- 
cation is not the only mode of communicating useful know- 
ledge, and the sole discipline of mental power. The mind 
is endowed in varying, but generally in large degree, with 
spontaneous activity. It can never be exerted without the 
development of power ; and it is surrounded by objects which 
solicit, encourage, tax and reward it. It thus develops power 
and gains truth. It scarcely makes any effort without acquir- 
ing more or less of knowledge. It never acquires any know- 
ledge without the exercise and increase of its own vigor ; this 
last statement might seem too strong. Knowledge radiates 
in upon us ; so quiet and facile at times is the acquisition, 
especially the youthful acquisition of knowledge, that we are 
inclined to pronounce it a merely passive absorption. It is 
never so. The mind must actively construe every sign 
of thought, interpret every word, judge every utterance. 
And with whatever apparent unconsciousness, and however 



256 LIFE OF A. B. BPvOWN, DD. LLD. 

mechanically, the association of ideas may sort out our new 
impressions, for their places in the memory, the will is every- 
where active in forming our habits of thought, and in co-ordi- 
nating our attainments. And this involves that every mind 
tends to self- evolution, that every man is in some degree, 
self-made, and that mental training takes care of itself; as 
the boy's tune whistled itself. But such mental unfolding 
is quite too easy, quite too feeble to qualify for the stern 
problems of life. 

Every mind is active, but probably no mind takes naturally 
to hard work. Repeated instructions, patient inculcations of 
lessons, along with something of restraint and constraint, are 
necessary to evoke any mental exercise beyond mere play. 
And where laborious teaching is done apart from the methods 
of the schools ; where tasks are imposed and some regularity 
of exertion, within the competence of early life is required ; 
the teaching is too desultory, occasional and miscellaneous, 
and the exertion soon becomes too easy to tax any, and too 
narrow to call out all of the powers of the mind. The school, 
especially the higher school, presents to the mind lessons 
which are models of luminous method, arranged on an 
ascending scale of difficulty — lessons which awaken and repay 
curiosity, which stimulate and constrain effort, and which 
suggest unfailing tests of successful effort. And not only does 
it expand and sharpen the mind by the impartation of wide 
spheres of generalized, and systematized truth ; but more and 
more as the course extends it cultivates those powers of analysis, 
induction and deduction, which qualify for the independent 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 257 

investigation, and elaboration of any and all truth. Let us 
enter a very little into detail. It teaches more thoroughly 
than can be acquired anywhere else, the prompt, facile and 
adequate interpretation of language, in which is recorded all 
the surviving product of human thought, all the extant 
experience of the human race. It presents for arduous and 
invigorating study, language, itself the most wondrous and 
the most valuable creation of man's skill ; language adjusting 
with almost infinite flexibility, to every mode and every act 
of consciousness ; supporting science in every step of her 
rigorous and subtle reasoning, and in every flight of her 
soaring speculation ; painting the poet's lightest dream ; 
launching the bolt and thundering the peal of the orator's 
indignation, and breathing in gentlest accents the mother's 
and the maiden's love. What power is involved in the 
accurate interpretation of another's thought and in the ade- 
quate expression of one's own ! 

But this is not all. It is not half. If not all thought, 
certainly all clear and continuous thought, is dependent on 
language. Language and reasoning are not identical, but 
they are practically inseparable. Sir William Hamilton has 
well said that thought may be, indeed must be, a little ahead of 
language, but language must follow close on its heels to bind 
its harvests into bundles. Changing the figure. Thinking 
is like tunneling a sand-bank. The spade reaches a little 
beyond the supporting framework, but no secure progress is 
made unless the timber or masonry closely follow to shove up 
every foot of the advance. Thought may skirmish in front — 



258 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

nay, may gain some indecisive victories — but words must follow 
hard to hold the ground. What a ludicrous but natural mistake 
in him who supposed that Jemmy O' Toole had merely chated 
him out of a Sunday sail for idays when he robbed him of his 
opportunities for education. Language is more than Sunday 
dress for ideas. It is necessary raiment. I should scarcely 
go too far if I added, it is the meat, and drink, and vital air 
of thought. I should insult your intelligence if I should 
maintain that this invaluable thing is monopolized by the 
colleges. But I do say, that where fair competency in the 
teacher, meets fair ability in the pupil, there the highest ad- 
vantages are likely to be realized. I must not forget that I 
undertook to show the practical advantages of collegiate 
education for all the higher walks of professional and indus- 
trial life. I must not then insist on the fact that in the two dead 
languages taught in college — the Greek and the Latin — are 
contained, the authoritative standards of Christian doctrine 
and ecclesiastical history. The original records in the one, 
the history of doctrine and organization in the other. That 
the foundations, and more than mere foundations, of our 
modern philosophy are in them. That they contain the 
seeds of most of our modern science and literature. I may 
not pass over the fact that almost all the more comprehensive 
terms in our language, and nearly half of the terms in even 
most common use, are better understood by a respectable pro- 
ficient in those languages. I must insist that the scantling of 
Caesar's Commentaries, Virgil's Eclogues, and Horace's Odes, 
which even a graduate could bring away from college, might 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 259 

prove a very slender outfit of practical knowledge for a lawyer, 
a mercliant, or a farmer. The vigor, accuracy, readiness, and 
subtilty of thinking developed in their acquisition, are invalua- 
ble advantages in every department of activity. We can only 
touch the science of the mathematics. Beginning with a 
meagre outfit of axioms, forms and definitions, what a magnifi- 
cent sphere of truth — now it is said, widening more rapidly than 
ever— has it constructed. Itself simply ideal, a realm of pure 
abstractions, it allies itself with fact and observation, it 
locates railroads and canals, levels the hills, tunnels the moun- 
tains, builds bridges, aqueducts, palaces and temples, con- 
structs your maps, establishes the boundaries between farms 
and between nations, fixes time and calends, fashions the ship 
and guides it with almost unerring certainty over the pathless 
waters ; not to speak of what it has done in threading the whole 
labyrinth of nature, in the earth and in the heavens, how 
practically useful it is to the race. But one says, except some 
aid in practical work, it is worth nothing to me directly in my 
office, in my shop, on my farm. Calculus, I admit, is worth 
nothing directly in most of the pursuits of life. But mathe- 
matics, as a practical drill in analysis, as the best known 
training in continuous and subtle reasoning, is the best disci- 
pline of mind in deduction and experience. 

The profound and brilliant Macaulay, hardly equalled by 
any linguist, who has made the languages his special life-long 
study, was a good mathematician, but formed a capricious 
distaste to mathematics; he failed to win the highest honors of 
Cambridge. Many years afterwards he remarked, with a 



260 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

touch of sadness, " I would not turn over one of my fingers for 
the honor of being Senior Wrangler, but I would give a great 
deal for the habits of mind, which the gaining of the honor 
would have established and avouched." I may not detain you 
to speak of that science, of know thyself, which itself is the 
subject, or the object matter, in which the soul minutely 
inventories, not its products but its powers ; in which it dis- 
sects itself, and yet lives with increased vigor ; and in which 
it surveys and enlarges itself in the very act of surveying all 
things else that lie in the range of its vision. Surely, surely, 
the study of ourselves and of kindred souls is invaluable, both 
in its silent knowledge and in discipline. 

Of natural philosophy and chemistry, I need say no more 
than that the former, is in a great measure, applied mathe- 
matics ; and that where they differ from mathematics they both 
furnish knowledge more immediately available ; and establish 
habits of thought more immediately applicable in the so-called 
productive industries, than any other studies. The whole 
course is skilfully calculated to make the several studies 
mutually helpful and complementary, and to furnish the 
greatest amount of valuable truth, and the highest degree of 
rounded and symmetrical mental development. Often those 
studies which afford a minimum of directly available truth, 
afford the maximum of culture. The college course com- 
prehends all the great departments of human knowledge, but 
it presents them rather in the manner of a general school, 
than of a topographical map. It marks the great thorough- 
fares into the grand main divisions of truth, indexes the roads 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 261 

leading into tlie lesser territories, and helps to a commanding 
outlook on the whole. Its wealth consists rather of ingots 
than of small change, and it requires a supplemental practical 
tact to coin them for immediate use. It more than any other 
training, cultivates the power of rapidly acquiring this tact, in 
converting its own stores into available forms, and in gaining 
whatever additional stores may be necessary. 

The young farmer who has been five years on the farm will 
succeed at first, greatly beyond his young neighbor of equal 
native ability, who returns from a five years' course at college, 
and goes right off" to farming. The old neighbors will laugh 
at the first efibrts of the agricultural novice who has no guide 
at all, or no guide but Liebig and the Southern Planter. 

If the young planter be a Jno. R. Edmunds, they will 
soon cease to laugh and begin to stare. But what a strange 
inference they will draw ! When ** Dick " came home from 
the University he was a great bungler. University education 
is nothing to a farmer ; practice is everything. Why, we 
may ask, had not practice done as much for some of them, 
scarcely inferior in natural endowments to this great states- 
man, and greatest of farmers ? Ah ! the University education 
was behind all the practice, in all the practice. The young 
Collegiate will wrap goods as nimbly, run up a column of 
numbers as rapidly, post books as skilfully as a rival with less 
of general, and more of special training. But give the young 
scholar a little time, and he will vindicate the practical worth 
of his studies. 

****** Hs 



262 LIFE OF A. B. BKOWN, DD. LLD. 



CHAPTER X. 

HIS DEATH. 

TT was a remarkable fact, that while through all 
■^ his life, Dr. Brown was fragile and delicate, he 
was enabled to say on his death bed that he had 
never had a serious sickness, and had never known 
the day when he could not dress himself. Always 
a victim to constitutional infirmities, he yet seemed 
to be singularly exempt from ordinary diseases. 
He endured the hardships and exposures of a 
country pastorate, and yet escaped the ordinary 
ailments with which his stronger brethren so 
often suffered. This was due in part to the sim- 
plicity of his habits and his unfailing prudence. 

For many years he was the victim of a cough. 
When, in 1881, he came to Richmond to enter 
upon his duties as a Professor in the College, he 
was a guest in the home of the writer during the 
time of his preparation for housekeeping. I had 
not met him many times since he was my teacher 
in the Albemarle Female Institute, and it was one 
of the sweetest privileges of my domestic life to 



HIS DEATH. 263 

welcome him and his loved ones to my board and 
fireside. His coming was an event fraught with 
joy to many J and my own heart bounded with 
grateful pride to see my old teacher take his place 
in that Institution, so deeply enshrined in the 
affections of the Virginia Baptists. But, after 
seeing him and noticing his wasted form and hear- 
ing in the night his incessant coughing, my joy 
changed to anxiety. He was, however, so full 
of vivacity and showed such marked powers of 
endurance, that the forebodings of his friends 
seemed to be unnecessary. He took up his work 
with surprising energy, and prosecuted it with an 
ardor so fresh and buoyant, that the question of 
his health ceased to be discussed. Sometimes, at 
the end of the sessions, he exhibited signs of pros- 
tration and exhaustion. But, after his vacations, 
he would return to his duties renewed in strength 
and hope. 

The College Session of 1885-86 opened with 
unusual interest. It had been announced that 
the exercises would be introduced by a public 
address from Dr. Brown. His popularity with 
the students was such that, contrary to their cus- 
tom of lingering at home until the day on which 
the recitation bell would ring, they came in large 
numbers, that they might enjoy the luxury of 



264 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

hearing him. In addition to the students and 
professors, there were present from the city many 
cultivated people, making one of those apprecia- 
tive and sympathetic audiences which always 
called forth his noblest powers. His subject was 
"Christian Education," and in it he showed by 
an argument at once compact and masterly, that 
Christian teaching may be done more effectually 
by example and silent influence than by formal 
religious instruction under legislative enactment. 
The address was witty, unique, richly entertaining 
and thrillingly eloquent. 

But human life is subject to startling changes. 
This auspicious opening of the College was soon to 
be followed by one of the saddest incidents which 
had ever marked its history. While apparently 
as well as usual. Dr. Brown was evidently anxious 
about the condition of his health. He consulted 
physicians, but they gave him no reason for special 
alarm. 

The General Baptist Association met in the 
early part of November, in the city of Richmond, 
Ya. Dr. Brown attended its sessions, and while 
he took no part in the public discussions, he greatly 
enjoyed his companionship with his brethren. He 
filled his house with delegates, and day by day his 
parlors were crowded with friends to whom he 



HIS DEATH. 265 

extended a delightful hospitality. Little did his 
brethren dream that his end would come so soon. 
During the week following the Association, Mr. 
Carson Brown, the eldest son of the deceased, was 
married, and brought his bride to his father's house. 
The marriage was in all respects most agreeable 
to the family ; and Dr. Brown hailed the coming 
of his new daughter with many demonstrations 
of pleasure. He gave himself heartily to the 
entertainment of the bridal pair. It was noticed 
that he was facetious and jovial even beyond his 
wont, and he brightened the home circle with 
many a flash of his quaint and mirth-provoking 
wit. Perhaps in all the earth there could not have 
been found a happier home than was that of Dr. 
Brown's during the few days when he had Carson 
and his young wife as guests. He was a prince of 
talkers, and no where did his colloquial powers 
show to greater advantage than at his own fire- 
side, and none enjoyed him more than his own 
family. 

He was engaged to preach at the First Baptist 
Church on Sunday, November 22d; but, on rising 
Sunday morning, he was attacked with a nausea, 
which so completely prostrated him that he was 
compelled to recall the appointment. On Monday 
morning Mr. Carson Brown and his wife left for 

Q 



266 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

their home, in Pittsylvania, with no serious mis- 
giving as to the condition of their father, little 
thinking of the message that was so soon to recall 
them. 

On Tuesday, the writer called at his home ; and 
on being invited to the chamber where the sick 
teacher lay, his parched lips and burning fever 
betokened too plainly the approach of death. He 
talked freely of his condition, and said the doctor 
told him he had engorgement of the liver; that 
he did not know how serious his case was, but 
that he had felt for some time that his end would 
come suddenly, "that he would pass rapidly away 
after having lived a life of as much real happiness 
as is ever given to any man." This was said with 
intense emotion and revealed the fact that he felt 
that his condition was critical. 

On Friday morning I visited him again, and was 
greatly pained at the marked change that had 
taken place. His whole appearance was different. 
His face was rigid, and his breathing labored and 
painful. When aroused from his stupor he made 
an effort to greet me with his wonted brightness 
and cordiality, and said that he felt better. During 
the morning he not only arose and dressed himself, 
but prepared the monthly reports of his classes. 
As the day advanced, he grew rapidly worse. 



HIS DEATH. 267 

He did not seem to be aware of the nearness of 
his end ; but his lungs, always weak, had become 
suddenly and hopelessly congested, and he was too 
much enfeebled to resist an attack so acute and 
powerful. After a brief ^ struggle, his final relief 
came, at nine and a half o'clock, on Friday night, 
November 29th, 1885. 

No public mention had been made of his sick- 
ness, and even his own family were not expecting 
the sad result. The news of his death, therefore, 
was a great surprise. At the College the Literary 
Societies were holding their weekly sessions, and 
when a messenger brought the startling tidings of 
his death, they broke up in the midst of tearful 
lamentations. 

The next morning the Richmond Despatch an- 
nounced the event, and the sorrow of the Eich- 
mond people was widespread and profound. As 
the intelligence went abroad through Virginia, the 
general grief, especially among the Baptists, was 
very deep ; and messages and letters of sympathy 
came to the family from every direction. 

The funeral took place at the Grace Street 
Baptist Church on Sunday afternoon. The 
weather could not have been more unfavorable. 
All day the rain had been pouring in torrents, 
and the streets were filled with water. The wind 



268 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

was piercing and fierce, and it was w^ell nigh 
impossible to walk the streets, without being 
drenched and chilled by the driving rain. The 
vast congregation, which despite the raging storm, 
thronged the building was itself a significant 
testimony to the honor and esteem, with which 
Dr. Brown was regarded by the Richmond people 
— and yet it was supposed that hundreds were 
kept away by the violent weather. The trustees, 
the faculty, the students and many, many friends 
entered the house with the procession. I have 
never witnessed a funeral service so tearful and 
impressive. Nearly all of the Baptist pastors of 
Richmond were present, and took part in the 
exercises. The music was in charge of a quartette 
choir of students, assisted by Richmond's most 
beloved and consecrated singer. Captain Frank 
Cunningham. 

Prof. H. H. Harris, the chairman of the College 
Faculty, was in charge of the exercises, and intro- 
duced them in fitting words. 

In the place of a formal sermon, there were 
three addresses. The pastor of the Church, Dr. 
W. E. Hatcher, who had been summoned by tele- 
gram from Culpeper, where he was assisting Rev. 
C. F. James in a series of revival services, was the 
first speaker. He spoke as follows : 



HIS DEATH. 269 

Let me say, dear brethren and friends, that I am not worthy 
to speak at such a time as this. My lips faint before their 
task. They cannot utter the anguish of my own heart, and 
yet less can they adequately speak the mournful sentiment of 
this hour. I tremble, lest I speak* what ought to remain 
unsaid, or withhold that which the occasion may demand. 

Who could speak worthily of Israel's peerless prince whose 
pulseless dust lies before us? What words can frame his 
eulogy whose worth belittles all praise? Unique, original 
and majestic when living, he wears in death a vestment of 
glory, which no tongue can describe. For years he has been 
enshrined in our hearts, and his presence has been a fountain 
of joy and strength. Now that God has suddenly taken him 
away, who can fittingly recite the story of his life, or paint in 
its loft}'' spiritual beauty, his character ? 

Such power pertains not to me, and yet you will bear with 
me, as I stand in my place and offer my feeble tribute to his 
worth. Our brother was a native of Amherst County. Truly, 
that rugged and beautiful old county, never bore a princelier 
son, and no son was ever more proudly loyal to his native 
hills. Dr. Brown once said, "that God's plant-bed for rearing 
Baptist preachers, lay along the eastern base of the Blue 
Ridge Mountains." From that soil he sprang, and in the ful- 
ness of time, Divine grace plucked him up, and transplanted 
him into the garden of the Lord, where his leaf never withered, 
and whatsoever he did, prospered. In his early life he became 
an Episcopalian ; but a larger and deeper study of God's Word 
revealed to him a better way, and he became a Baptist. 



270 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Heartily accepting the distinctive views of the Baptists, he 
maintained them with gentle and courageous devotion, and 
was always happy in the fellowship of his brethren. Unblest 
of fortune, and yet inflamed with a quenchless passion for 
learning, he had a sharp conflict in seeking an education. 
But his purpose to attain unto generous culture was over- 
mastering, and in the end victorious. His scholastic 
advantages were fragmentary, comprising a year at Wash- 
ington College in Lexington, Va., and later, a brief term at 
our State University ; but what the schools denied him, 
his own inflexible energy and tireless personal application 
achieved for him. He became a chief in the family of 
scholars. 

It startles us to think of him so frail in body, so wedded to 
books, and so sensitive to the jars of life, beginning his minis- 
terial career as a pioneer in the mountains of Virginia. Those 
who knew him as the youthful missionary are not here to-day, 
but their testimony abides that his life was spotless, his 
spirit heroic, and his sermons full of gospel power. In the 
rugged conflicts of those boyish days, he won the strength for 
his splendid achievements in other fields. 

Dr. Brown first became conspicuous to public view, as the 
pastor of the Baptist Church at Hampton, Va. He was then 
in the freshness of his ripened manhood, and not even the 
blotting of old Hampton from the earth can ever efiTace the 
marks of his influence in that community. 

A lady told me this morning, that she met a grey-haired old 
man on the street car yesterday— one who was a leading spirit 



HIS DEATH. 271 

in the Hampton Church during Dr. Brown's pastorate. He 
had just heard of his old pastor's death, and unmindM of the 
cold glances of those around him, he was crying like a child. 

Yesterday afternoon, I passed through Charlottesville ; in 
the thickening gloom of the evening, I saw the tower of the 
Baptist Church ; it reminded me of those magnificent times 
when our brother stood in the Charlottesville pulpit, and by 
his majestic eloquence drew to his feet, as eager listeners, the 
best brain and culture of that classic community. I saw the 
Albemarle Institute in which he taught, and thought of his 
scattered pupils who once ennobled by his magnetic and 
brilliant life, were now to be saddened by ihe tidings of his 
death. 

Dr. Brown loved to teach. Twice he held a professorship 
in Hollins Institute ; and his memory will forever be indis- 
solubly linked Avith the history of that Institution. He helped 
greatly to give to that school the lofty place which it now has. 
It was in the dark days of the war that he finally bade adieu 
to Hollins, and entered the army as a missionary. For 
nearly two years, of his own accord, and from a conviction of 
duty, he slept in the camp, preached in the open air, visited 
in the hospitals and cheered the soldier boys in the midst of 
their denials and perils. When the end came — the tragic 
disastrous end of the strife — he returned to his family in their 
little country home in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. There 
for fifteen years, sometimes teaching, sometimes working in 
the fields for bread, all the time the devoted teacher of his 
own children, he remained. In the midst of these duties he 



272 LIFE OF A. B, BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

ceased not to declare the word of God. As the pastor of 
country churches he was in the best sense a public benefactor 
^— an example of righteousness — a stimulating, refining, uni- 
fying, Christian force, and his work so honestly done, will 
long survive him. In that community, his name is the 
synonym of purity, honor and fidelity. While he labored, 
he studied, and studying, grew to the height of his great 
manhood. 

Now and then he emerged from his rural retreat, and 
appeared in the councils of his brethren. He came like a 
prophet, anointed with celestial power and burning with his 
message. His words fell with almost seraphic power upon the 
crowds which pressed to hear him. Some of us remember 
how, that in the strength of the bread which he gave us to eat, 
we travelled for many days in the wilderness of life. 

Justice is tardy, but always sure. At last the Baptists of 
Virginia awoke to a sense of his worth, and in 1881, sum- 
moned him to duty in the Faculty of Richmond College. As 
others are to speak of him as the college professor, I pass over 
that phase of his life with the single remark that those who 
were the most active in securing his appointment will always 
recall the part they took with grateful satisfaction. 

It is always painful to me to speak in terms which to others 
may savor of exaggeration. Those who did not know Dr. 
Brown will hardly forgive the almost boundless enthusiasm 
and admiration with which his friends regarded him. I say, 
with a full sense of my responsibility, that in many points Dr. 
Brown was the greatest man that I ever knew. He was 



HIS DEATH. 273 

endowed with a great mind. It was phenomenally, excep- 
tionally great — great in its grasp, great in its penetrating 
power, great in its power to hold and surprisingly great in its 
capacity to recall, combine and utilize what he knew. In the 
extent, variety, accuracy, and honesty of his learning he was 
pre-eminent. His shattered nerves made it painful for him to 
write and sometimes painful to speak. His sensitive modesty 
often sealed his lips when his soul was on fire to speak. But 
whether on the platform, or in the class room, or at the fireside, 
he opened his lips, it was the unsealing of a fountain of wis- 
dom and truth. 

I do not care to call Dr. Brown an orator. Perhaps he was 
not. The frailty of his form, the occasional lack of volume 
and distinctness in his voice, his untrained and sometimes vio- 
lent gestures may have fallen below the popular ideal of the 
orator. But what he lacked in studied grace and smooth 
speech, was more than made up in the fiery and impetuous 
torrent of his thought, the intense earnestness of his nature 
and the boldness and honesty of his bearing. If we are 
to judge men by the eflfect of their public utterances, he 
could easily stand the test. His power with the people was 
wonderful. I stood at the gate of the Baptist Church, in 
Culpeper, yesterday, when a distinguished Presbyterian 
lawyer approached me. I informed him of Dr. Brown's 
death. "Alas!" he said, "one of our greatest men has 
fallen. I heard him preach in this church what I verily be- 
lieve was the most thrillingly eloquent sermon that I have 
ever beard." I remember well that in his speech on State 



274 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Missions, before the General Association, at Petersburg, in 
1870, he produced an impression wbich was unequalled by all 
I have heard in impressive and overwhelming power. When 
he finished, the people sat spell-bound and in tears. As 
another brother, after a pause, rose to speak, a minister rushed 
out of the house exclaiming : "Let me get out. After hearing 
Brown, I can hear nothing else." On other occasions his 
power over the people was equally great. His eloquence was 
ripened thought steeped in holy passion. 

It often happened that his noblest speeches were spiced 
with a humor that was exceedingly chaste and gentle. On 
one occasion, I remember, his wit broke forth like a flood, 
and convulsed his audience into surprised laughter. If not 
an orator in finish and art, he was better than an orator 
in his sublime power to enkindle high sentiment in human 
souls. 

Better even than his imperial mental gifts, was his nobleness 
of heart. I know that it has been said that Dr. Brown was 
passionate, and sometimes yielded to angry excitements. Well, 
he had a high and impetuous nature. His views of rectitude 
and propriety were very emphatic. In his youth he spurned 
evil with a consuming intensity which sometimes set fire to the 
evil doer, and in his sight discourtesy was a crime. But he 
saw his fault. He put a chain upon his fiery nature. He sub- 
dued himself humbly before God. He learned patience and 
charity, and was gentle. He was like a little child before the 
Lord. His spirit was candid, forbearing, magnanimous. He 
knew men. Those who fancied he was unobservant and undis- 



HIS DEATH. 275 

crimiDating were greatly mistaken. He knew what was in 
men in a very remarkable degree. But he was kindly in his 
judgments and marvelously cautious in his speech. He neither 
spoke roughly to the offender nor severely to the wrong-doer. 
He loved peace, and sought always to do what was pure and 
right. He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost. 

In no relation of life did our brother show to greater advant- 
age than in his home. In the mercy of God he found in his 
youth one of the wisest and truest of women for his wife, and to 
the end of his days he accorded to her that graceful courtesy 
and unfailing gallantry which he gave her as a bride. He ruled 
well his house — always receiving the prompt submission and 
purest reverence of his children, and that, too, with only the 
gentlest displays of his authority. In him his children had a 
constant and entertaining companion. The gate of his home 
was always ajar for his friends. He dispensed hospitality with 
a cordiality so easy and informal that his guests were always 
made happy. Hundreds have tasted his bounty who will now 
bewail his departure. 

When he came to Richmond I did not ask him to unite 
with this church ; but when he gave me his letter, I could not 
refrain from expressing the joy which I felt in his coming. I 
did not feel that I was fitted to minister to him, but I rejoiced 
that such a noble counsellor had entered our ranks. Little, 
indeed, did I know what an unspeakable blessing he would 
prove to the pastor or the Church. From the first, he won 
the love of the people. They believed thoroughly in his good- 
ness and wisdom. They were always glad to hear him. He 



276 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

entered thoroughly into the work of the Church. His seat 
was rarely vacant, and never without a cause. While averse 
even to the appearance of conspicuity, he was ready for every 
good work. Last Sunday week that veteran pioneer of our 
State Mission Board, M. A. Wilson, was invited to speak in 
our Sunday School. Of course, he was in quest of money to 
aid him in building a house of worship in the Southwest. 
When it was proposed to send out the baskets to receive the 
gifts of the brethren, Dr. Brown sprang up with his pocket- 
book in hand, and, halting the collectors, said, "Brethren, let 
us do something worthy of us : here is my gift : who else will 
help?" His words were electric, and the money poured in 
from many quarters. 

Since I entered this pulpit, more than ten years ago, to min- 
ister to this Church, I have had many discriminating, helpful, 
responsive hearers. Many of my sermons have been saved 
from failure by sympathetic eyes that are now sealed in death. 
But I speak the simple truth, when I declare, that the most 
gracious and inspiring auditor to whom I *ever preached (ex- 
cepting, possibly. Dr. Jeter), was Dr. Brown. Not only did 
he listen well, but almost every Sabbath he remained after the 
close of the service, to utter some pleasant criticism upon the 
sermon — none the less pleasant because it was sometimes 
adverse. He never failed to yield a cordial sympathy to every 
enterprise of the Church, or to every scheme of the pastor 
which looked to the honor of Christ. It is not for me to 
attempt to express a sense of that loss which has fallen on this 
Church in his death ; but he leaves to us a name that cannot 



HIS DEATH. 277 

be forgotten, and an example whose influence will continue to 
do its silent work. 

His testimony in favor of the Gospel has been to many a 
stronghold of faith. He was a philosopher, in the broadest 
Christian sense. He knew history; he had gone to the bottom 
of language and of literature. To him, the theories and spec- 
ulations of men, in every department of thought, were quite 
familiar. He had measured the depths of skepticism, and 
knew its strength and its weakness. He was one of the few 
men who could safely cross the line and personally inspect the 
grim fortresses from which the enemies of God hurled their 
deadliest missiles. He had made the round of the enemies' 
encampments, examined their weapons, and measured their 
strength. Better than any other mfm, who has moved in our 
midst during this generation, he was able to study the Christian 
evidences under all converging lights. This he did, and the 
end was a cloudless faith in the redemptive work of Christ, 
the Son of God. He trusted in Jesus as the Living One; and 
each day saw him on his knees and in grateful fellowship with 
his Lord. Many of us are not capable of grappling with the 
devices of infidelity. It may start questions which we can not 
answer ; but if Dr. Brown, our prince in scholarship, believed 
the Gospel, we need not doubt it. We can prop our trembling 
faith with his faith which never trembled. In that faith he 
has closed his life and gone to be with Christ. Happy Sabbath — 
unspeakably happy — has this been to him : sitting beneath the 
Tree of Life with his own beloved Poindexter, Jeter, Taylor, 
Bagby, and Tyree, and gazing entranced upon the glories of 
his Redeemer. 



278 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

The second speaker was Rev. V/illiam C. Tyree, 
of Amherst County, Ya., who was chosen to repre- 
sent his fellow students on the occasion. Tenderly 
and appropriately he voiced the feelings of those 
he represented. In the following will be found 
the address of this consecrated and promising 
young minister : 

I cannot tell you kind friends with what trembling em- 
barrassment I appear before you, at this sad hour. It is with 
no sense of fitnes3 that I come, but simply that I may voice 
the sorrow of my fellow-students; I may be pardoned for 
saying that one fact, serves to embolden me for my task. I am 
the son of one w^ho was a life-long friend of Dr. Brown, and 
I feel that it is an act of filial piety to bring a simple flower of 
praise, and place it upon this bier. I may add also, that 
Amherst, the county of Dr. Brown's nativity, is my adopted 
home, and in no place, was he ever more highly esteemed. 
The respect which he won as a boy, continued and grew until 
his death. The news that he has passed away, will sadden 
hundreds of hearts in the community, where he was reared. 

But chiefly as a student of Kichmond College, am I here 
to speak. It is a poor tribute to our lamented teacher to 
say, that he commanded the most profound and affectionate 
admiration of the students. His princely mind, his varied 
learning, his gentle spirit, and his transparent goodness, 
secured for him the highest respect. He was to us a never 
failing fountain of knowledge. We never heard him without 



HIS DEATH. 279 

being euriclied with knowledge — and inspired with lofty pur- 
poses. He was a lover of truth, and those who sat at his feet, 
felt the contagion of his spirit. 

But we loved Dr. Brown as much as we respected him. 
He was our friend, he was accessible, modest, and always ready 
to help us. He encouraged us, while he taught us— and 
quickened our self-respect by his manifest care for our welfare. 
How sadly we will miss him ! How much of that mellow. 
Christian influence which pervaded the college will depart 
with him. 

The sweet light of his life will ever be to us a holy memory 
and a precious incentive. He taught us how to live, how to 
study, how to work, how to suffer, how to wait ; and now he 
teaches us how w^e must die. He has closed his class-book — 
and will call the roll no more ; but it is pleasant to reflect 
that he has gone to answer to the roll-call of the skies. 

Fellow-students, around the coffin of our dead professor we 
bow beneath a common sorrow. Let us catch the falling 
mantle of the ascending prophet, and wrapping it about us, go 
forth to the battle of life. 

The third address at the funeral was delivered 
by Dr. Brown's fellow-professor, Rev. Wm. D. 
Thomas, DD., and richly deserves a place in 
these memorial papers. It is to be regretted that 
Dr. Thomas has not been able to furnish a copy 
for publication. In its stead, we take the liberty 
of presenting the subjoined sketch, written for the 



280 LIFK OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

College Messenger^ by Prof. B. Puiyear, LLD., 
one of the most tenderly loved friends that Dr. 
Brown ever had : 

Our community has been most painfully shocked by the 
sudden death of Dr. Brown. The sad event occurred on 
Friday, the 27th November, at 9:20 P. M. Dr. Brown was 
on the streets on Saturday, the 21st, in his usual health, and 
was engaged to preach the next day at the First Baptist 
Church. But with the day came the last sickness that was to 
convulse his already wasted and feeble frame. He was too 
unwell to preach, or even to attend church. No serious appre- 
hensions, however, were entertained until a few hours before 
the fatal issue. Indeed, he was cheerful and talkative on the 
afternoon of his last day on earth, greeting his friends with a 
grateful smile, and begging them to prolong their stay. But 
his vital energies had been well nigh exhausted before sickness 
came, and when it came, he fell, therefore, an easy prey. 

We shall attempt no sketch of the life of our departed 
friend and instructor. That task we leave to other and more 
competent hands. We shall speak of him only as a college 
professor, and as he appeared to us in his daily work and walk. 

Dr. Brown was indisputably the most intellectual man we 
have ever known. His mind was always actively at work. 
We believe that his physical system was weakened, and, at 
length, undermined by his high intellectuality. He belonged 
to that noblest type of philosophers who seek knowledge at all 
times and everywhere because they love it. To study and to 



HIS DEATH. 281 

learn was a necessity of his nature. The truth was lovely in 
his eyes, and he sought it eagerly because he loved it with a 
burning passion. Whether his intellectual achievements would 
bring him fame, or wealth, or dignities, were matters that did 
not occur to him. Not these did he seek, but simply and only 
what was true. And when he discovered Truth, he clasped 
her as Goddess fair, and was thrilled and electrified by the 
embrace. Though he might not hear, yet in his inmost soul 
he felt the " music of the spheres." To discover the causes of 
things, to trace the connections and dependencies of events, to 
build solid theories upon established facts, were the constant 
and necessary occupations of his mind. And when an intel- 
lectual triumph rewarded his labor, what warmth, and glow, 
and ecstacy sufiused his face and tingled along his nerves! 
What seraphic joy must thrill his now unfettered soul as it 
sweeps the boundless Universe, and contemplates, in its multi- 
plied relations and magnificent amplitudes, the truth he loved 
so well ! 

With a mind so vigorous, so inquisitive and active, and de- 
voted through life to scholastic pursuits, Dr. Brown was, as 
must needs be, a prodigy of learning. He was at home in the 
ancient and modern languages, in belles-lettres, in history, in 
philology, in sociology, in metaphysics, in the positive and 
exact sciences, not excluding the abstruse mathematics. Nor 
did he simply make forays into all these fields of learning. 
His acquisitions were not only varied, but accurate, thorough, 
and profound. His aim was to know, not to seem to know. 
Hence, when he grappled with any subject, he did it exhaust- 



282 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

ively, never relaxing his grasp until he had conquered it. 
Hence, when he wrote, or spoke, or lectured, he put the whole 
domain of learning under tribute. Facts, illustrations, prin- 
ciples,, from every department of science and of literature, 
came trooping in marshalled ranks, and ready for effective 
service. His difficulty was not what to say, but what not to 
say ; not what to take, but what to reject. And whatever his 
theme, and how familiar soever with it, he threw into it all his 
powers at their utmost tension. It was impossible for him, 
v/hen before an audience, to think slowly or to think languidly. 
Facts and arguments which, falling from other lips, would 
seem stale and dull, in passing through the glowing alembic 
of his mind, came out warm and throbbing with life, and rich 
and radiant with beauty. And when the effort is over, he is 
left pale, limp, exhausted. He could do nothing except by 
doing it with all his might, and hence the prostration which 
attended all his intellectual efforts. His body suffered in these 
fierce convulsions, and finally succumbed to the terrific strain. 
Dr. Brown never made money. It was impossible for him 
to do it. His thoughts were too intent on other and higher 
things. He made fame, it is true, but equally without intending 
it. It followed him ; he sought it not. To his intimate friends 
he was known to be shrinking and tremulous to a surprising 
extent, and hence he sought no occasions of display. He had 
none of that vulgar ambition which seeks the front and thrusts 
itself into notice. When he appeared before the public, it was 
with a worthy purpose, and was satisfied if only his object was 
successfully accomplished. 



HIS DEATH. 283 

With his towering intellect and his great learning, Dr. 
Brown was as simple, as transparent, as artless as a child ; 
"an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile." In his 
dress, manners and conversation, he was utterly unpretentious, 
and was as accessible, therefore, as the plainest man in the 
work-shop or the field. Men, and all sorts of men, talked 
with him freely on all sorts of subjects. There was nothing 
repellent about him ; but his unassuming manner and won- 
derful resources of thought and knowledge made him a 
delightful companion to all classes of people. Nor was it 
difficult to find his guileless heart, his tender sympathy, his 
overflowing generosity and love. He practiced no tricks, he 
knew no arts, he never deceived nor betrayed a friend. In 
what heart has ever arisen, from what lips has ever fallen, a 
sentiment unfriendly to Dr. Brown ? 

He is gone; gone to the bosom of his God, whom he served. 
We have lost our " guide, philosopher, and friend." A void 
has been made in our midst, which none can fill. In the lonely 
vigils of the night, we recall our friend, and bemoan our loss. 

Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus 
Tam cari capitis. 

At the request of the family, the burial was 
deferred until ten o'clock next morning. At that 
time, accompanied by the family, the faculty and 
the students, it was borne to Hollywood, and 
found its resting-place in the college section. His 
grave is but a small distance from the hill-top, 



284 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

which is crowned with the monuments of James 
B. Taylor, and the gallant General J. E. B. Stuart. 
As the body was lowered to its resting-place, 
the pastor spoke briefly of the resurrection ; and 
prayer was offered by Prof. Edmund Harrison. 
After the grave was filled, the saddened company 
sang the sweet " Bye-and-Bye," and were dis- 
missed. 

Dr. Brown was greatly beloved by the Baptist 
ministers of Richmond. His delicate courtesy, 
and never failing alacrity, in serving them, as well 
as his wisdom as a counsellor, gave him a warm 
place in their hearts. At a meeting of the Rich- 
mond ministers' conference, a few days after his 
death. Dr. W. W. Landrum, the eloquent pastor 
of the Second Baptist Church, was appointed to 
voice their sorrow in appropriate resolutions — of 
which, extracts appear below : 

*' 1. The departure of our brother leaves a wide gap in our 
ranks. Like Saul, the magnificent proportions of his stature 
as a preacher of the word, lifted him head and shoulders above 
us all ; his were royal faculties, and his a princely mind. His 
eloquence threw its spell over every audience of every grade 
of culture, from the rudest to the most polished assemblies. 

" 2. As an educator, our brother stood among the foremost. 
He was in all his methods didactic by nature. He never 



HIS DEATH. 285 

made an exhortation till he had first expounded a doctrine. 
He was abundant in proof, of any position he felt called upon 
to assume, and as fecund in illustration to make clear his 
demonstrations to the comprehension of the meanest intellect. 
>fi * * ^ ^Ye deeply sympathize with Kichmond College 
in its irreparable loss — as well as the cause of sound learning 
throughout the land. 

"3. It was, however, most of all, his life as a simple-hearted 
believer in Jesus, which drew the cords of our affection closest 
about the form of Dr. Brown. We shall never forget that 
life. One prominent element of his pow^er lay in his broad 
sympathies ; his great heart gave a quick response to every 
cry of joy or sorrow, which came up from the soul of the race. 
Another secret, of his forceful personality, inhered in the 
strength of his convictions. A profound philosophy couches 
in the declaration of the Psalmist, ' I believed — therefore have 
I spoken.' Dr. Brown was mighty in the faith of Christ and 
the Gospel, and spoke his belief with commanding emphasis ; 
he had the courage of his convictions. >H ^ >l< 

" 4. He tenderly loved his brethren, and in honor preferred 
them. In him was no bitterness, nor jealousy, nor vaulting 
ambition, but instead, a warmth of fraternal love that would 
have made an enemy to be at peace with him. His modesty 
sometimes approached a painful diffidence. He would blush 
with confusion at the slightest mention of praise, and declare 
with another, whom in this respect he resembled, * I am not 
what I might be — I am not what I ought to be — I am not 
what I hope to be, but by the grace of God I am what I am.' 



286 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

We beg to offer the bereaved wife and children of our dear 
brother, our sincerest sympathy, and fraternal petitions at the 
throne of the heavenly grace. * ^ * 

"5. We place these expressions on record for preserva- 
tion," etc., etc. 

Dr. Brown was one of the most useful and inter- 
ested Trustees of the Richmond Female Institute. 
It was a pleasant custom with him to bear public 
testimony to its usefulness, in the higher education 
of girls. This he did in almost every public gath- 
ering in which education was discussed. After his 
death, a memorial service was held at the Institute, 
and a paper prepared by the accomplished Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trustees, Dr. H. A. Tupper, 
was read and adopted, expressing their appreciation 
of his worth, and suggesting that a leaf of the 
records of the Institute be appropriately dedicated 
to him. It is to be regretted that want of space 
prevents its appearance in full in these pages. 
Below will be found a part of this admirable 
paper : 

"Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this 
day in Israel ?" 

In the death of Dr. A. B. Brown, a Trustee of Eichmond 
Female Institute, the cause of woman's higher education has 
lost one of its earliest friends in the South, and perhaps its 



HIS DEATH. 287 

most sympathetic and powerful advocate in America. During 
thirty years, this great and good man was identified, in various 
ways, with institutions of learning for girls and young women • 
and his advocacy of this cause, on many public occasions, was 
marked by originality, forcefulness, and eloquence, rarely 
equalled, and perhaps never excelled, in the discussion of 
woman's claim to severer mental discipline and broader scholas- 
tic culture. Born himself with an exquisite nervous structure 
which gives quick appreciation of the keen sensibility and the 
subtile intellection of that same delicate and superior nervous 
structure in woman; confirmed in his convictions by long 
experience in studying and teaching her, of woman's adapted- 
ness to the highest development and acquisitions of mind, and 
her peculiar ability to apprehend moral truth and apply it to 
the problems of social and religious life; and rejoicing in the 
success which has crowned female students in competitive tests 
in celebrated universities of the United States and Great 
Britain, he entered con amove into the defense of woman as a 
momentous factor in the world of thought, and a controlling 
element in the world's social and spiritual civilization. There 
was a chivalric generosity of nature, also, that inclined him to 
such vindication, and made him lean, if he leaned from the 
perpendicular of exact justice, to the side of female excellence. 
Listening to that matchless tribute to woman, worthy of an 
appreciative student and competent judge of the sex that pro- 
duced a George Eliot and an Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 
not to name others nearer home, made at Warrenton, before 
the Baptist General Association of Virginia, the auditor was 



288 LIFE OF A. B. BTIOWN, DD. LLD. 

at a loss to know "whicli to admire more, the fair extolled, or 
the gallant extoller whose deference to his subject suggested 
the greatness of that master of logic, J. Stuart Mill, when 
he protested that his own best thoughts were derived from a 
woman ; and the greatness of the nobler Apollos, mighty in 
the Scriptures, and eloquent when he gladly submitted himself 
in Ephesus to be led more perfectly in the way of the Lord 
by the Paul disciplined Priscilla of Eome. 

And who that followed Dr. Brown, on such occasions, need 
be reminded of the profound impressions made by that mar- 
velous combination of analytical acumen, philosophic accu- 
racy, breadth of research, and wealth of illustration ; all fired 
by intense earnestness which characterized his grand utter- 
ances, and embalmed them in the life-long memory of his 
hearers ? It is said that the author of the Iliad and Odissey left 
unused no figure furnished by physical nature for the original 
use of his successors in the divine art. After one of those 
splendid creations of oratorical genius, which came from the 
lips of our now speechless Chrysostom, like full armed Minerva 
from the brain of Jupiter, who ever thought that he had a 
word to add by way of argument, embellishment, or appeal ? 

Yet, the great things he did seemed unconsciously done, as 
the converse of Carlyle's principle, that consciousness is the 
test of imperfection ; and in resemblance to the tapestry- 
workers of Paris, who, with eyes fixed on the pattern above 
their heads, do not see the glorious work in silver and gold 
wrought by their skillful hands. 

But, Dr. Brown was not merely a champion of woman and 



HIS DEATH. 289 

of woman's culture — a kind of clerical "ladies' man," that 
may have given rise to the witticism of England's most caustic 
wit, that there are three sexes, men, women and preachers. 
Dr. Brown was a manly man — the manliest of men — a king 
among men. Though angular in frame — alas! too frail for 
the titanic machine it encased — he was in character many- 
sided and w^ell rounded. He was a philosopher, a divine, a 
Professor in Eichmond College. He was a college ! One of 
the most intellectual, brainiest, and fullest men of Richmond 
has said, that Dr. Brown w^as the most brain-stimulating, 
brainy, and brimful man he ever knew. When one touched 
him intellectually, it was like touching a galvanic battery. 
The severest charge that could be brought against him — 
already suggested — was the charge that Charles II. brought 
against a distinguished contemporary, that he had the unfair- 
ness, in his consideration of all subjects, of leaving nothing lo 
be said. But, Dr. Brown was, withal, a courtly. Christian 
gentleman. 

And, was there not something unique in the greatness of 
this man? He was a power in himself and in his God, without 
the factitious abetment of popular notoriety or reputation. 
The most prominent hotel proprietor of Halle had never heard 
of the world's most illustrious Hebraist, after the death of 
Gesenius, Dr. Tholuck of Halle University. * * 

In the far South, there is a tree that ranks the live-oak in 
majesty, and yet is covered with flowers spotless as the driven 
snow and fragrant as the breezes wafted over the fields of 
Araby. This magnolia is nature's fit emblem of the united 



290 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

powers and graces of such a planting of Jehovah as that lately 
transplanted from earth, and planted in the garden of the 
Lord. " And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of 
water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also 
shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." 
Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper; for his life, "hid with 
Christ in God," is identified with the tree of life that flourish- 
eth on the banks of "the river of life proceeding from the 
Throne of God and of the Lamb." 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 291 



HIS CHARACTER. 



An eminent historian has said that the biogra- 
pher ought first to ascertain what the world did 
for the man, and then what the man did for the 
world. 

In pursuance of this order, as indicated in the 
introductory of this volume, I have endeavored to 
show the reader how the influences of heredity 
and environment on the gifted A. B. Brown, 
helped him to attain, by successive gradations to 
the synthesis of his development, as the devout 
and scholarly Professor of Richmond College. It 
now only remains to show, what return he has 
made in contributing to the betterment of man- 
kind. And in order to do this faithfully, it will 
be necessary to take a view of the man as he 
was — with his peculiarities, his powers and his 
influences — to make of his character, at least a 
partial analysis. 

It is to be regretted, that although he became 
a leader in the intellectual world in which he 
moved, and was one of those representative men 



292 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

of wliich Macaulay speaks, who occupy the front 
rank of the age — he did not leave to posterity 
any memorial of his genius, save his addresses 
and sermons, some of which appear in this volume. 
His power for good was so thoroughly the out- 
come of his character, that in order to estimate 
the value of the former, we must understand the 
latter. 

Of the dual nature God gives to man — the ma- 
terial and the spiritual — Dr. Brown possessed much 
more of the latter than the former. The one was 
out of all proportion to the other. If his ability 
had been gauged by his pounds avoirdupois, it 
would have been below mediocrity. 

In stature, he was tall and slender. His face 
rather dark in complexion, and rugged in his fea- 
tures, was ridged with marks of intense thought- 
fulness. His dark auburn hair displayed few 
streaks of gray, though his thin beard was tipped 
with snow. His movements were remarkably 
nervous and decisive. To strangers, his appearance 
was not attractive ; but to those who once felt the 
thrill of his power and the gentleness of his char- 
acter, there was always a spiritual beauty in his 
countenance. 

The late Dr. Kichard Fuller said of a distin- 
guished Southern preacher, that God gave him a 



HIS CHARACTER. 293 

great soul, and he gave him a great body to keep 
it in. The same could not have been said of Dr. 
Brown. There seems to be truth in the remark 
of Dr. Puryear, that his spiritual forces were con- 
sumed by the spiritual fires of his being. Burns, 
Byron, and Poe degraded their higher natures by 
yielding to the sordid cravings of their lower ; but 
Dr. Brown sacrificed his body at the altar of the 
soul. 

In manner, he was exceedingly courteous and 
respectful to all — notably so to those who were his 
inferiors. He had a cordial grasp and a hearty 
shake for the child or the student, as well as the 
professor. His sense of honor was exceptionally 
high ; and in early years he could not brook the 
want of it in others. His nature was full of sen- 
sibility and tenderness ; his heart and purse were 
ever open to the sorrowing and unfortunate. He 
could be melted to tears, in recounting the evi- 
dences of God's favor to him, in reciting a favorite 
poem, or in listening to a plea for help from the 
worn missionary, whose labors he so well appreci- 
ated. It is said of him, that once in his English 
class, while reading of the treatment of King Lear 
by his children, he was so overcome with emotion, 
that he had to stop. 

Underlying the colossal structure of character 



294 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

that Dr. Brown erected for himself, were the basal 
stones of simplicity, transparency, and honesty of 
purpose. His habits as a young man were above 
reproach, and when he attained to old age, he had 
no bitter memories. Blameless and guileless, none 
could ever accuse him of double-dealing. He 
sometimes stumbled and fell into pitfalls, but it 
only made him the more watchful afterwards. 

Conspicuous in the galaxy of his shining traits, 
was his humility. He felt himself the least among 
his brethren. 

It seems strange that a man of such wondrous 
gifts and graces did not receive a more grateful 
reception at the hands of the world. This, per- 
haps, is explained in part by his lack of self-assert- 
iveness. It was impossible for him to enter the 
unseemly struggle for place. Had he courted pro- 
motion, he might have won it : though it must 
have been at the expense of that unsullied modesty 
which was one of the crowns of his life. Then, 
too, he was always ready to sacrifice himself in 
the interest of others. At one time, he was prom- 
inently mentioned in connection with a vacant 
professorship in one of the most distinguished 
institutions in the State. The position was pecu- 
liarly attractive to him, and he did not disguise 
his hope of securing it. It came to pass, that he 



HIS CHARACTER. 295 

learned that a beloved friend of his was an appli- 
cant for the same position, and instantly he deter- 
mined to withdraw, and gave his influence in favor 
of the appointment of his friend. He was an 
expert and an enthusiast in advancing others to 
honor; but he never understood the art of pro- 
moting himself. 

To give the reader a fair estimate of Dr. Brown's 
mental capacity, is a task far beyond the ability 
of the writer, yet something must be undertaken 
in that direction. He was liberally endowed with 
mind. The intellect, the sensibilities and the 
will seemed to exist in perfect harmony, and 
almost equal proportions. Some men are gifted 
in one or two of these departments ; few in all. 
And in intellect itself, when we come to analyze 
it, we find it difficult to decide whether he was 
greatest in perception, reason, memory or imagina- 
tion. Gifted above many, his great intellect 
reached out in every direction for mental pabulum 
— upon which to subsist. He developed sym- 
metrically and rapidly, but not without great 
hindrances. 

It is said of Ruskin that he was born in wealth, 
trained in the best schools and colleges, and that 
he traveled all over the country by rail and in 
carriages, visiting cathedrals, palaces, etc.; and 



296 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

living too, at a time of a great art revival, he 
would have been grossly culpable if he had failed 
to be a master in his chosen profession. Not so with 
Dr. Brown, though helped in early life by a self- 
sacrificing father to a good academic training, he 
struggled hard to obtain the means for a college 
and university course. 

By dint of energy, and the vigor of his faculties 
he became one of the most profound scholars of 
the age. The theoretical question discussed by 
Sir Wm. Hamilton, as to whether "Truth" or 
"Search after truth," yielded the most happiness 
was ever a moot point with him. Tiie greater 
part of his studying was done after he left school; 
he was a student all of his life. There prevails 
among the immature, and uncultured, and with 
some degree of plausibility, the idea, that the 
beginning of life is for acquiring, and the latter 
part for enjoying what has been acquired, and 
for dispensing it to others. While this is a truth, 
it is only a partial truth; the whole of this life 
is but a preparation for another; time is but a 
training-school for eternity. We are all pupils in 
the school of providence. But few recognize this 
fact ; and fewer still, put forth the special efforts 
to make constant advancement in every depart- 
ment of being. We cannot repair, except to a 



HIS CHARACTER. ' 297 

limited extent the constant wastes of the physical 
constitution, but we can make real progress in 
the mental and spiritual, through the whole pro- 
gress of the journey. Dr. Brown in one of his 
sermons quoted as his talisman, the words of 
Paul, " For I count not myself as having attained." 
His wife says of him that in their early married 
life, he was such a constant student, she would 
sometimes take his books from him ; but she soon 
found that his habit of study was so essential to 
his happiness, that she ceased to attempt an 
estrangement between him and his books. When 
he had no new books, he reread his old ones. 
During the war, he lost the most valuable books 
of his library — the very cream of it. This was a 
great sorrow to him, but he said that it became 
the means of his being more familiar with those 
he had left home. 

His craving for knowledge knew no bounds. 
He loved only what was pure. He carefully 
avoided the sensational and unhealthy. His love 
of books grew in intensity; he never ceased to 
enjoy the works of the ancient writers, and was as 
conversant with their views as with many of the 
authors of the present day. Cicero, Homer, Thu- 
cydides and Plato, were familiar friends. Those 
who have read the addresses in this volume must 



298 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

have noticed, the ease with which he makes classi- 
cal quotations. 

Dr. Brown was not a poet, but if he had lived 
in the age of poetry, it is likely that he would 
have composed blank verse. Some of his sublimest 
strains were poetry in all, except "poetry's metri- 
cal music." His vivid imagination, his delicate 
sensibility, his sympathy with nature in all her 
moods, his keen appreciation of "the true, beau- 
tiful and good " — his classical learning and great 
genius, would have needed only the touch of 
inspiration to make him a great poet. His love 
of nature was marked; especially of mountain 
scenery. Not many years before he died, he went 
again to his old mountain home in Amherst. The 
friend who accompanied him said, that it was 
with difficulty he could get him to proceed on the 
journey, that he would halt the driver at almost 
every turn of the road to get another mountain 
view. He said that Dr. Brown's joy was so great 
on seeing his native hills again, that he exclaimed, 
" If I could live among these grand old mountains, 
'I would live ten years longer." Though he was a 
master, he counted himself a student. 

Stone, the celebrated mathematician, was the 
son of the gardener of the Duke of Argyle. When 
he was asked how he acquired so much of mathe- 



HIS CHARACTER. 299 

matics and of the languages, with such poor oppor- 
tunities, he said, "that he knew the alphabet, 
and that all the knowledge he gained afterwards, 
was a natural sequence." Chatterton said, " God 
made men's arms long enough to reach everything 
in the world." The alphabet is the key that 
unlocks the storehouse of all knowledge. Given 
it, and the love of truth, with a steady industry, 
and success is assured. Dr. Brown was an inde- 
fatigable worker — but his mental labor was no 
drudgery, it was one of the sources of his happi- 
ness. He was a great lover of poetry, and entered 
into the conceptions of the author w^ith a keen 
relish. Milton, seems to have been his most 
admired poet. He loved to follow him in his 
loftiest flights, and gaze with him from the watch- 
towers of human learning, upon the rich fields of 
truth spread out to view. It was his custom to 
read at family worship on Christmas day — the 
" Ode on the Nativity of Christ." 

As a metaphysician. Dr. Brown stood without a 
peer among his brethren. He loved to grapple 
abstruse questions — to cast them into the crucible 
of his own master mind, subjecting them to the 
most severe analysis — passing by the dross of 
error for the refinings of truth, which, when ob- 
tained, were like ingots of gold, that would pass 



300 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

current anywhere in the marts of thought-exchange. 
With the ancient systems of philosophy he was 
wonderfully conversant. Not less so with the new 
doctrines of infidelity. He was invited once to 
make reply to a certain blatant, notorious public 
lecturer. He armed himself for the task, but on 
account of the feebleness of his health, he begged 
off from the performance of it. Concerning evolu- 
tion, he used to say, that there was not a particle 
of proof given in its favor; that it was an unproved 
proposition, and not a demonstration; and that 
the dogmatic assertions of the evolutionist prove 
nothing. 

He was greatly distinguished as a metaphysi- 
cian, but not less so as a linguist. Without the 
aid of a teacher, he learned the languages of 
German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Anglo-Saxon, Spanish, 
and Italian; having learned French, Latin, and 
Greek at school. He read in the different tongues, 
not only to learn the construction of the language, 
but to get at the literature of the people. He 
loved language, and was an accomplished philolo- 
gist. It was a favorite pastime with him, when 
his children would gather around him in his library, 
to interest them in some word, and occupy them 
in tracing its etymology. He knew the laws gov- 
erning all languages — how that they proceeded 



HIS CHARACTER. 301 

from the same roots — and it was an easy matter 
for him to learn a new one. The Italian language 
was the last one learned. The writer remembers 
to have seen him, a few weeks before his death, 
reading from an Italian Pilgrim's Progress. He 
remarked that he had learned the language with- 
out the use of a dictionary, and when one was 
offered him, he replied, " No, thank you ! I do 
not need it now." One of the finest novels ever 
written, "I Promessi Sposi," was taken from the 
library to be carried to him, when it was found 
that he was too sick to read it. His taste was so 
discriminating, that his judgment on books was 
often sought. 

It is said that when his brother Joseph, who 
had decided literary tastes, would visit him in his 
country home, it was his wont to read Hebrew 
and Greek with him, under the shade of the wide- 
spreading oaks. He loved to get the truth in its 
^^unshrunken roundness," as he expressed it. He 
took great pains to instruct his children in the 
languages. He did not often trust them to any 
one else ; at least till he had thoroughly grounded 
them in the rudiments. It is said that those he 
first instructed in Latin, never had any trouble 
with it afterwards. 

For mathematics, he had special aptitude and 



302 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

peculiar fondness. He loved so much to solve 
difficult problems, that he would get the students 
to give him their originals, that he might have the 
pleasure of w^orking them. He turned to mathe- 
matics for recreation when tired of other mental 
labor. His mind went through the steps so rapidly 
and so naturally, that it was with difficulty one 
could be made to believe that in mathematics he 
was not a specialist. It had such a fascination for 
him, that sometimes he would work on a difficult 
problem far into the night before being aware of 
it. It was his delight to assist the struggling stu- 
dent. If he did not ask his help, he would seek 
him out, and offer it. In his last sickness, he sent 
for one of the boys he had been accustomed to 
help, to come to his chamber, that he might assist 
him in his lessons. 

If we would probe to the bottom of a man's 
character, we must draw aside the curtain, and 
study him in the retirement of his home. There 
he drops the arts and conventionalities of society, 
and reveals his inner life. In that realm he is the 
master ; and masters wear no masks. In his de- 
portment toward wife and child he will inevitably 
expose the reigning elements of his character. If 
he is gentle toward his inferiors, patient in the 
midst of the jars and disorders of the home ; if he 



HIS CHARACTER. 303 

is strong even when chafing under the cruelties of 
unprincipled men, and if he is cheerful under losses 
and afflictions, we know at once that the spirit 
that is in him was born from above. 

Mr. John B. Williams, a ministerial student at 
Richmond College, who boarded in his family a 
part of two years, says : 

Dr. Brown was one of the most indulgent fathers I ever 
knew. He was gentle and affectionate, both to his children 
and his wife, whom he so tenderly loved. He spent much 
of his time in prayer. It was no uncommon thing to see 
him in his library on his knees. It was his custom to pray 
at family worship for his absent children by name. At 
such times he never prayed for himself The hour for 
worship was always an interesting one. He would read 
the text in different languages — sometimes Greek, sometimes 
Hebrew, Latin, or French — and would usually comment 
on it as he read. 

The servants always liked him. He never allowed any- 
thing to excite or worry him. He lived above the ordinary 
frictions that beset household machinery. An old colored 
woman who had lived with him a long time, said the reason 
why " Marse Abram," never troubled about anything was that 
thoughts were " way up yonder." He seemed to find most ot 
his enjoyment in spiritual and mental exercises. My life in 
his home was a most happy one, and his help to me was 
invaluable, both as a friend and teacher. 



304 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

Thanks are due to Miss Linda Brown, Dr. 
Brown's eldest daughter, an accomplished gradu- 
ate of the Richmond Female Institute, for valuable 
services rendered the writer in collecting details, 
arranging manuscript, etc. She was much in the 
companionship of her father, often reading for 
and studying with him, and the picture she pre- 
sents of his home-life is not in the least overdrawn. 
Eead what she says : 

What my father said of his father's devotion to the interests 
of his children, can be said most truthfully of him. He was 
as kind and sympathetic as a mother, and at the same time 
exacted implicit obedience. He rebuked very sharply at 
times, but I think he never had to correct one of his children 
for disobedience. Never was a father more tenderly loved 
and revered. He used to tell with a great deal of fatherly 
pride about his eldest son, Carson. When he was only a little 
over three years old he would take him out to look at the 
new building at Hollins, but during its erection he was called to 
Lynchburg, and told Carson not to go near the building whilst 
he was gone. So the little fellow would go and sit on the 
stile, which separated the yard from the new building, and 
watch the men at work, but could not be induced to go out in 
the yard. One of the workmen told father on his return, that 
he tried his best to persuade him to come over near the house, 
but he would only shake his head and say, " No, papa said 
I must not go there whilst he was gone." 



HIS CHARACTER. 305 

He enjoyed having his children around him ; and even when 
they were quite small, preferred sitting in mother's room to 
occupying his study. Their talk and noise never disturbed 
him as long as they were in a good humor; but crying he 
never allowed. He thought fretting was injurious and useless : 
and we knew by the time we were two years old that he 
wouldn't stand that. 

He was a great lover of nature, and would take his children 
to walk, when he would call their attention to the beauties of 
nature, to the forms of the leaves of the different trees, and to 
the flowers ; also to the animals. 

He would take part in their games, one of which he was 
particularly fond, called Logomachy, or word making. 

He was considered as homely by most people, but such was 
the admiration that his children had for him, they could not bear 
to hear any one say that their father was not goodlooking. 

Father was at home with all the poets, and must have read 
a great deal of poetry in his earlier days, as he repeated from 
memory, very frequently, line after line, and was very happy 
in his quotations. 

His children thought he had a splendid voice, and loved 
dearly to hear him sing. He used to sing some of Burns' 
national songs with so much pathos, it was impossible to listen 
to him and not be melted to tears. One of his favorites was 

"Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, 
Scots wham Bruce has aften led, 
Welcome to your gory bed. 
Or to victory," etc. 

In this connection, it must be stated that he 
always sang in the morning, on awaking, some 



306 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

familiar hymn. It was usually a hymn of thanks- 
giving and praise. He was very happy in his 
home-life. His children were named Alexander 
CarsoUj Willie, Wimbish, Eddie, Linda, Fannie, 
Luther, and Minnie. Devoted to his wife, always 
ready to tell of her good qualities, he gave her the 
courtly attention of a lover. He desired no affilia- 
tion with the details of housekeeping. And it was 
a blessed relief to him that his wife relieved him 
of all care in that line. He furnished the means, 
but she invested it. She was the financier of the 
household. He was so much occupied with the 
" pursuit after truth," that the making of money 
was a matter of secondary importance to him. 
Gold had less glitter for him than any one I ever 
saw. Like Agassiz, he was content for others to 
make it. He said, not long before he died, in a 
public speech, near his home, " that the lines had 
fallen to him in pleasant places." He rejoiced 
that he had never had a death in his family. He 
looked for the most of his earthly enjoyment 
within the folds of his own family circle. He 
never liked to have his children stay long away 
from home. One of his daughters was pressed to 
take a position to teach, and when asked as to his 
views about it, said, " Why, my child, do you want 
to go ; are you tired of home ?" No doubt he felt, 
at tim3s, the tightening hold of disease on him. 



HIS CHARACTER. 307 

and that his time with his family was limited, and 
appreciated them all the more on that account. 

It is a matter of regret that so few of Dr. 
Brown's letters have been gotten. These are only 
given as specimens. 
Deak Willie : Peytonsburg, July 10th, 1883. 

I congratulate you on your marriage ! All that 
I know of your wife is altogether in her favor. Bring her 
down to see us as soon as possible. Assure her that my son's 
wife shall be treated as my daughter. 

You know how I have rejoiced that my family circle has 
so long been unbroken by death. You know, too, with what 
reluctance I have submitted to the partial relaxing of home 
ties by the unavoidable separations which business necessities 
have required. Please write to us frequently, and visit us as 
often as you can. I have long prayed for you as a member 
of my own household absent on business. I shall not cease to 
pray for you, but you have now your own household, and 
must rear your own altar. You will need prayer and Chris- 
tian principle to sustain you in properly discharging your new 
duties. May you be a faithful and affectionate husband. 

Be sure to bring Lillie to see us as soon as you can make 
an opportunity. Express my parental love to her. 
Yours with unaltered and unalterable affection. 

A. B. Brown. 

Richmond, Va., March 26th, 1884. 
My Dear Daughter : 

I thank you sincerely for your truly filial 
letter, and I welcome you most heartily into your new relation. 



308 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Eddie has been a most dutiful son. He has in him, in large 
measure, all the elements of the best of husbands. I im- 
plicitly rely on your affection, your interest and your sound 
discretion to aid in evoking and developing them. 

Usually, and I suppose, altogether properly, the most inti- 
mate relations of a young husband and wife are with the 
wife's family. But you have no near relatives, and you will 
naturally seek father and mother, sisters and brothers in my 
family. I trust you will find them. 

Tell Eddie, and ask him to inform Willie, that Carson is 
suffering from rheumatism ; I hope not seriously, but I know 
not to what extent. He is in solitude and his spirits are 
probably low. I hope that they will keep themselves informed 
about his condition. :^ ^ :^ :^ ^ 

In conclusion, I hope you will win Eddie to a more pro- 
nounced and decided Christian life. The elements of true 
religion, I doubt not, are in him, but they have been less 
active, certainly less manifest than I could wish them to be. 

You and he would greatly delight us by an early visit. 
Notify us of it, if you can ; but if an opportunity suddenly 
exhibits itself, be not afraid of taking us by surprise. 

Your father, A. B. Brown. 

It seems appropriate to introduce here the 
subjoined paper from the Professor of Greek, 
H. H. Harris, who is also the Chairman of the 
Faculty of Kichmond College. Among the many 
friends of Dr. Brown, none knew him better or 
enjoyed more of his friendship. 



HIS CHARACTER. 309 

When Dr. Brown came to Charlottesville, in 1859, there 
was in his congregation a certain University student, who was 
a graduate in the school of Greek, and had pursued a course 
of post-graduate study. The new pastor somehow heard of 
the student, sought him out, and with complimentary allu- 
sions to his supposed attainments, stated that he himself had 
some little knowledge of Greek, but would like to refresh his 
acquaintance and get up with any recent advances in philology. 
The young collegian was highly flattered, and readily accepted 
an invitation to spend an hour at the parsonage every Thurs- 
day afternoon. 

One of Plato's Dialogues — a grand discussion by the most 
sublime of ancient philosophers — was selected to begin with, 
and on the appointed day the student, having taken the pre- 
caution to read over a few pages, went down with a comforta- 
ble sense of his own importance. After a little pleasant 
bantering as to whether teacher or pupil should begin the 
recitation, the so-called teacher was induced to commence 
turning the Greek into English. But stop a moment, a 
question, presently another, and then another. " Why is this 
tense used ? why this peculiar position ? what is the meaning 
of this root, and what are its forms in the cognate tongues ? 
Is this sound philosophy? what led Plato into it? how might 
he have escaped ? How does this form of expression com- 
pare for excellence with Hamilton's close-fitting sesquipedalian 
terms, or Kant's cumbrous compounds, or Cousin's clear-cut 
analyses ? " Such are samples of the queries which came thick 
and fast. Some pertained to the usual lines of grammatical 



310 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

study, more were entirely new, and many as bright and 
startling as a flash of lightning. In less than half an hour, 
as any one who knew the two men might have anticipated, the 
relation of teacher and pupil was entirely reversed. The one 
had, indeed, more familiarity with the forms, a sort of speaking 
acquaintance, as it were, with the Greek words, and could make 
fair progress on the beaten track of the scholastic curriculum ; 
the other knew far better what he did know, saw deeper into 
all he learned, and was ever leaping over the strait bounds of 
school routine to revel in the rich fields of original research, 
or roam the breezy heights of speculative thought. At the 
end of the hour, not more than two dozen lines had been 
read, but one of the two had learned a great deal. The 
readings were kept up several months, and usually followed 
by tea and an hour of social conversation. 

Thus began a friendship which deepened and strengthened 
through two years of residence together in Charlottesville, was 
knit by occasional meetings after our paths diverged in 1861, 
and ripened into intimacy when they brought us together again 
after twenty years. Then was true to the letter what Tennyson 
had sung : 

" The path by which we twain did go, 

Which led by tracts that pleased us well, 
Through four sweet years arose and fell 
From flower to flower, from snow to snow ; 

" But where the path we walked began 
To slant the fifth autumnal slope 
As we descended, following Hope, 
There sat the shadow feared of man." 



HIS CHARACTER. 311 

We had met almcst daily in his class-room or in mine, at 
my home or at his, had sat together in the house of God and 
taken sweet counsel about the common faith, and our com- 
panionship ended only when it was my sad privilege to catch 
his last words and close his glazing eyes. Ended? Nay, 
rather was it not merely interrupted for a little while, 
to be resumed in that true spiritual converse which as far 
transcends the dreams we read in Plato as the dim starlight 
of heathen hope is surpassed by the full-orbed rays of the 
Sun of Righteousness ? 

Others have written of Dr. Brown as a man, a citizen, a 
Christian; as scholar, and teacher, and preacher. My part 
will be to add to the wreath a modest flower, by mentioning 
some of his prominent characteristics as a personal friend. 
They will be found worthy of all imitation. 

First, then, he was critical. Some men cannot see either 
faults in a friend, or excellencies in an opponent. Dr. Brown 
saw both in every man. This will seem hardly credible to 
many who enjoyed his acquaintance. They never heard him 
speak ill of his neighbor ; they never knew him to criticise. 
But a moment's reflection on his keen insight and his judicial 
habit will make it evident that he must have discerned in our 
poor humanity weakness as well as strength, faults intermixed 
with virtues. 

That he entertained a real respect for men whom he felt, 
nevertheless, bound to oppose, and that he gave them full 
credit, both for sense and for sincerity, was patent to all who 
ever heard him in public debate or in private discussion. His 



312 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

uniform courtesy was plainly not the mere tinsel of external 
and acquired politeness ; that would have been torn to shreds 
by the impetuous torrent of his emotions. His politeness was 
the sterling, hearty, Christian grace of esteeming others better 
than himself. He always sought, and therefore always found, 
good in everybody, and habitually talked rather about the 
good than about the evil that might be with it. Like the 
miner digging for gold, he allowed no shining grain to escape 
his notice, but gave little heed to the sand or the mud in which 
it was embedded. This it was that made his eulogies so appro- 
priate and so satisfactory to friends, without the addition of 
any flattery. 

That he also saw the faults and foibles of his friends is 
equally true. He did not talk about them to others, but to 
themselves, on proper occasions ; and this so gently, that his 
reproof was an "oil upon the head." When weakness or 
mistake had caused a fall and made a wound in the character 
of one he loved, he would not entrust it to the slow medication 
of time, to leave an ugly scar ; nor would he plaster over the 
surface, and expose the system to pyaemia. With womanly 
tenderness he probed to the bottom, poured in the healing 
balm, and then closed the gash. Oh, for more of such friends, 
able to see our faults, and yet not make them worse by rude 
and painful prodding ; but to give us real help in getting rid 
of them. 

Secondly, he was sympathetic. With far more truth and 
depth of meaning than Roscius could conceive, Dr. Brown 
might have said : Homo sum et nil humanum a 7ne alienum 



HIS CHARACTER. 313 

puto. " I am a man, and nothing human count I as alien to 
myself." No matter what his engagement, he was ready to 
listen to a cry for help, and no matter what the trouble, he 
could enter into it. What another might have laughed at as 
weakness, he pitied, as being himself also weak. What to 
another might have been unintelligible, and would therefore 
seem imaginary, he could fully realize. His own lot was, in 
some outward respects, a hard one ; sometimes misunderstood, 
often unappreciated, never blessed with a competency of 
worldly goods, always having to struggle, he was yet not at all 
soured, but only led to drink deeper of the spirit of the Man 
of Sorrows, and to become as many-sided in heart as he was 
in mind. Few others who girded on the lamb-skin, as the 
badge of a Free and Accepted Mason, ever learned more 
fully, or practiced more completely, "the principles of our 
order — friendship, morality and brotherly love." Few were 
ever more ready to heed the signal of distress, in whatever 
form or from whatever source it might come. 

A touching testimony was borne to the universal love in 
which he was held by the students of Richmond College. A 
solemn stillness fell on all when the news of his unexpected 
death spread through the halls. There were no sports, no 
merry laughing for days ; but all spoke with tearful eyes and 
bated breath, and all followed in sad procession to his burial, 
each feeling that he had lost a personal friend. 

Lastly, he was eminently helpful. This follows, of course, 
from what has been said already. His purse, though never 
well-filled, was never so empty that he would not relieve the 



314 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

bodily wants of tlie poor. In his pastorates his advice was 
sought on all sorts of questions, and proved singularly valuable. 
In the Faculty of the College there was no better adviser of 
young men, in the perplexities that often involve them, nor 
any more frequently called on for help out of difficulties with 
a Latin construction, a Greek etymology, an equation in 
conic sections, or a moot point in metaphysics ; and the 
aid he gave was free, and at the same time judicious and 
helpful to a habit of self-reliant work. Nor was there any 
other to whom his colleagues would apply with more free- 
dom, or more certainty of valuable aid. One of them 
used to say that he earned his salary, even if he had done 
no teaching, simply by his constant stimulation of the other 
professors. 

But his chief delight, and his greatest excellence as a friend 
was in helping any who might be clouded with fears about 
their spiritual condition, or tossed with doubts about the 
authority of revelation. Restless as the billows on the surface 
of the ocean was his tireless activity of mind, running to every 
zone, catching every breeze, washing every shore ; calm and 
serene as its unshaken depths were the foundations of his 
simple-hearted trust in Christ Jesus. From this standpoint 
he marked the currents of opinion and estimated the^ 
winds of doctrine, and so could point out a sure reck- 
oning for the tempest-tossed, a firm anchorage for the 
unstable. 

Let me close by appropriating another canto from England's 
laureate, in memoriam of his friend : 



HIS CHAEACTER. 315 

Heart affluence in discursive talk 

From household fountains never dry ; 
The critic clearness of an eye, 

That saw through all the Muses' walk ; 

Seraphic intellect and force 

To seize and throw the doubts of man ; 
Impassioned logic, which outran 

The heaven in its fiery course ; 

High nature amorous of the good, 

But touched with no ascetic gloom ; 
* * * •« * 

And manhood fused with female grace 
In such a sort the child would twine 
A trustful hand, unasked, in thine, 

And find his comfort in thy face ; 

All these have been, and then mine eyes 
Have looked on : if they looked in vain 
My chance is greater who remain, 

Nor let thy wisdom make me wise. 

As a conversationalist, lie was the charm of 
the social circle ; like Addison, he preferred to talk 
to a single individual at a time ; but, like Dr. 
Johnson, could entertain a room full, when drawn 
out from his hiding-place. His conversation was 
always instructive and suggestive, often gleaming 
with bright flashes of wit, and sparkling with the 
efflorescence of truth. If he was talking in a 
room where there were other talkers, by degrees 



316 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

the hum would subside, and he would remain the 
only speaker. At times he would become so 
deeply absorbed in the topic under discussion, 
as thought after thought would come trooping up 
to his mind's eye, that he would entirely forget 
his surroundings. After one of these intense 
mental excitements, he would suddenly awake to 
find that his extraordinary vehemence was an 
occasion of merriment. Sometimes when he and 
Professor Hart were on a high controversial tilt, in 
the dining-hall of the Albemarle Institute, he 
would pile his plate with biscuits, taking from 
every servant that offered them ; and sometimes, 
he would stop in the street with a friend, and 
gesticulate in the most decisive manner, to the 
amusement of passers-by. I never knew one to 
be so completely the slave of thought as he was. 
Eev. John B. Williams gives the following inci- 
dent which illustrates this fact : " The last time 
the Dan River Association met with the Hunting 
Creek Church in Halifax, Dr. Brown reached the 
Church but a few minutes before the introductory 
sermon was to be preached. It was soon ascer- 
tained that the one appointed to preach the 
sermon would not be present, and it was decided 
to invite Dr. Brown to take his place. He tried, 
as usual, to show that almost any body suited 



HIS CHARACTEE. 317 

better than lie did, but all in vain. At last he 
consented, with the understanding that he should 
be allowed time enough to take a little walk, 
and collect his thoughts before the sermon. He 
started, and while walking, was so absorbed in 
his sermon, that he forgot where he was, and was 
lost in the forest. Some of the brethren suspected 
that to be the trouble and set out to look for him. 
They soon found him and brought him back. He 
walked right up in the pulpit, and preached one 
of the finest sermons ever listened to." 

The reader has had abundant evidence in the pre- 
ceding pages, of Dr. Brown's ability as a preacher. 
As a theologian, he was sound and logical. He 
was invaluable to the students of Richmond Col- 
lege, who came under his influence. He sought 
to indoctrinate them scripturally, and watched 
them, as they entered on their fields of labor, with 
eager interest. He believed in the Bible, in its 
entirety, and had no sympathy with the new 
theories that seek to mutilate it. Surely the tes- 
timony of one so thoughtful, so discriminating, 
and so learned, is not to be despised. The Bible 
was his daily text-book, which he studied with 
ever-increasing assiduity. He read it in many 
languages, but his Greek Testament was perhaps 
his favorite book. It is said that no accurate 



318 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

estimate can be made of the number of Greek 
Testaments he wore out in his saddle pockets 
Avhen a country pastor. Ofttimes, just before 
leaving home, he would put the different mem- 
bers of the family to hunt up the etymology of 
some word that he had neglected to search for in 
the preparation of his sermon. 

Kead what Dr. Andrew Broaddus, of Caroline, 
Ya., whose style as a writer is as pure and trans- 
parent as his own Christian character, says : 

Dr. Brown's mind was pre-eminently apaalytical, and, at the 
same time, it was distinguished by an acumen — a pov/er of 
penetration and a comprehensiveness of grasp unequaled in 
the ministry in any denomination in the State. 

The thread of his reasoning followed a proposition with 
unerring accuracy, through the most intricate windings of a 
labyrinth, to its ultimate conclusion, while, as he went on, his 
keen eye penetrated to its depth every side passage that opened 
into the main track of thought. He saw a subject in all its 
bearings, and could trace it in all its connections, and for- 
getting that others were not gifted with his intellectual acute- 
ness, he sometimes pursued an abstruse line of reasoning along 
which many of his hearers could not follow him. His style 
was eminently didactic. It was copious, but not diffuse; 
elevated, but not stilted; accurate, but not formal. Public 
speakers may be divided into three classes : first, those who, 
while speaking are thinking only of themselves — who are all 



HIS CHARACTER. 319 

the time saying to themselves, " Didn't they think that was 
sublime!" " They must have regarded that as very eloquent;" 
" They cannot but think I am a great wit," and so on. Then, 
there are those who think only of the effect of what they are 
saying on their hearers, and who are constantly asking, in 
their own minds, *' Will they accept that truth ?" " Will they 
be convinced by that argument ?" " Will they be moved by 
that appeal ?" etc. Then, again, there are those who become 
so absorbed in the subjects they are discussing, that they 
are rendered almost entirely oblivious of their hearers, and of 
their surroundings. This was frequently the case with Robert 
Hall, and I think, not unfrequently the case with Dr. Brown. 
Though he was very much annoyed by any disturbance in the 
congregation, yet, when the people were orderly and attentive 
he sometimes became so swallowed up by his subject, as to 
forget where he was, and what he was doing. On one occa- 
sion I saw him, while preaching, come from behind the desk 
and stand in front of it on the narrow moulding at its base, 
holding on to the desk behind him with both hands, so as to 
keep from falling, and continuing to preach as if he had been 
standing on the floor of the pulpit. 

In character and deportment. Dr. Brown was the most 
unassuming man of prominence I ever knew. He always 
took the "lowest room," and hence his brethren always 
delighted to urge him to " go up higher." He never lost the 
engaging simplicity of childhood, and of him it might be said 
as truthfully as of any one the writer has ever known, '' behold, 
an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." It is thought 



320 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

by some, that superior intellectual gifts are usually coupled 
with a cold heart ; that the light of the intellect dazzles, but 
does not warm. If this be generally true (and on that point 
I here express no opinion), Dr. Brown's case certainly formed 
a marked exception. Plis heart was as warm as his intellect 
was brilliant. His hearty grasp of the hand and his cordial 
words of greeting furnished an index of his genial, loving 
nature. A lady of my acquaintance, who is herself adorned 
with no ordinary attractions of person, manners, mind and 
heart, says she always liked to meet Dr. Brown on the street, 
because, instead of bowing or lifting his hat, as he passed on, 
after the manner of most town-people, he stopped, and, seizing 
her hand in his cordial grasp, he accosted her with a beaming 
smile and pleasant words of greeting. 

In intellect and heart, in motive and aim, in character and 
conduct. Dr. Brown was a man among a thousand. 

A. B. 

Sparta, Va., December 23. 

He aimed at thoroughness in everything he 
undertook. His own thoughts, though fresh and 
suggestive, had to be supported by undisputed 
authority. On this account his sermons abounded 
with gems of thought and vivid illustrations of the 
classic and recondite order. Prof. Hart says his 
imagination was his highest gift. Certain it is, that 
his thoughts were often lit up by brilliant imagery 
that captivated the hearei by its forceful applica- 



HIS CHARACTER. 321 

tion. One not accustomed to close consecutive 
thinking might not always follow him entirely; 
but he was so eminently a Gospel preacher, that 
the listener was sure to gain real benefit. His 
gestures, considered in the light of all prede- 
termined lines of grace, were awkward — though 
his most appreciative auditors thought them en- 
tirely fitted to his thoughts. His appearance to 
the stranger hearing him for the first time, might 
not be specially attractive ; but to those who could 
receive real truth as it came freshly hewn from 
the quarry of God's providence and grace, no 
greater intellectual and spiritual feast could be 
offered than to listen to one of his thoroughly pre- 
pared sermons. It is a matter of real regret that 
none of his printed sermons or addresses do him 
justice, for, though he wrote the line of thought he 
was to follow, he always trusted to the inspiration 
of the moment for help in his closing sentences ; 
and often his best thoughts came to him fresh 
while on his feet. 

The following, furnished by the eloquent pas- 
tor of Court Street Church, of Portsmouth, is a 
brilliant extract from the celebrated Petersburg 
speech : 

Dr. Brown was not only a profound scholar, but he was a 
profound thinker. He had mastered a vast army of other 



322 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

men's thoughts ; but he marshaled, and disciplined, and uni- 
formed them by his own genius, so that when he led them 
forth they were as irresistible as the Macedonian phalanx. 
He discovered many solid and beautiful stones, out of which 
he built the temple of his thoughts, but the architecture was 
his own conception, and the polishing and carving were the 
work of his own hands. 

Dr. Brown was especially felicitous and impressive in his 
illustrations. His illustrations were not only strikingly beau- 
tiful,- but they were clothed in the purest and grandest 
language. One I remember with especial pleasure, as, at the 
time I heard it drop from his lips, it thrilled me with an 
ennobling emotion. He was delivering an address on the work 
of the State Mission Board, before the General Association of 
Virginia, during its session in the city of Petersburg, in 1871. 
The idea he desired to impress upon his brethren was that of 
mutual support. The missionaries were at the front ; those of 
us in the rear should freely give them our support, and he 
said : " Mr. President — I suppose the battle of Gettysburg 
decided the fate of the Confederacy. At the time that 
Pickett's Division made its splendid charge, the angel of 
history hovered over the scene to write down, a nation is born; 
but the division which was to support Pickett's failed to 
respond, and the broken squadrons of the Northern army 
rallied, and plucked from their hands their hard-earned 
victory ; and that angel turned away with tears of iron, and 
with a pen of fate, wrote, the lost cause.' ^ 

A. E. Owen. 



HIS CHARACTER. 323 

But tlie best has not been told. His strength 
lay in his inner life. His soul drank deep and 
copious draughts from the well of salvation. He 
was not only a Christian in name, but a living 
embodiment of the religion of our Lord. He spent 
much of his time in prayer. It was no unusual 
thing for one of his family to enter his library and 
find him on his knees. The influence of his piety 
pervaded the household, calming and subduing all. 
It is indeed rare to see intellectual and spiritual 
attainments existing in the same individual in 
equal proportions. Those who knew him best, 
hardly knew which to admire most, his mighty, 
ripened intellect, or his devout, unselfish spirit. 
The one heightened the other. Hugh Miller says 
that the literary world would never have known 
a John Bunyan if his religious emotions had not 
been so powerfully stirred. Activity of religious 
feelings quickens intellectual activity. 

Col. Thomas J. Evans, one of Richmond's most 
pojDular lawyers, writes of him in the church and 
home. It is a loving tribute from one of his best- 
loved friends : 

Some men are great only on great occasions and on great 
subjects. Dr. Brown was great on these occasions, and on 
what are considered small, as well. 

This paper will treat of him briefly — and, oh, how imper- 



324 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

fectly— in the Sunday-school, in the pew, in the social circle, 
and in his home. 

Great man as he was, he regarded it no condescension to 
teach a class of young men in the Sunday-school. Always 
punctual in his attendance, his class followed his example. It 
is no exaggeration to say, that no class ever had better 
instruction. 

He was regularly in his pew, and joined heartily in all the 
public exercises of the church. No better listener was ever 
seen in the church. He seemed to drink in everything that 
was said and done, from the giving of the notices to the bene- 
diction, inclusive. While others criticised, he always found 
something good in the sermon, and it seemed a pleasure to 
him to speak of that good. In going down the aisle, after the 
congregation was dismissed, he has been often heard, in a short 
sentence, to make a most valuable application of some point 
made by the preacher. Yes, in going down the aisle! It was 
not his habit, as the manner of some is, to rush out of the 
church, as if anxious to get rid of the preacher, the people, 
and the house of God. No ! He delighted to linger awhile, 
and then walk slowly down ; stopping, now and then, and 
shaking the hands of the brethren and sisters, and speaking 
words of kindness to them. 

His contributions to the church, and the various boards 
and organizations connected with it, were systematic and 
liberal ; and whenever the public collection, for general or 
extra purposes, was taken, he never allowed the basket to pass 
by him unnoticed. Though not blessed with wealth, he was 



HIS CHARACTER. 325 

ever generous in his gifts. The last act of his life, in the 
House of God, was a generous gift. 

In the social circle he was charming. Here, as in church, 
he was a good listener, never monopolizing the conversation. 
When drawn out, however, he was a wonderful talker. He 
was not a speech-maker in conversation ; he talked. Full of 
information and original thought, he never failed to interest 
and instruct any company of which he formed a part. The 
writer of this humble tribute remembers to have been in a 
social gathering, a few years ago, at which there were present 
two professors from the Theological Seminary (then at Green- 
ville), two professors from Richmond College, three pastors of 
Richmond, and one pastor from South Carolina, all of them 
good talkers. Dr. Brown took part in the conversation. He 
had to leave earlier than the others, and after he left the 
opinion was universally expressed that he was head and 
shoulders above them all in conversational power. 

He enjoyed a joke, even if told on himself. The following 
was told on him in a small company at his own house, at Avhich 
he laughed heartily, and said the old sister was right. He had 
preached for the congregation of another denomination in 
Richmond, The people were greatly pleased with the dis- 
course, and as they came out of the house were speaking 
admiringly of it. On the side walk, just at the church door, 
some ladies stopped and were praising the effort of the preacher. 
A young sister said to an older one, " Was not that a power- 
ful sermon ? " The response was, " Yes, powerful long." 

He was remarkably well posted about public men and pub- 



326 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

lie measures, and took pleasure in talking about them to 
his friends in the private circle. Had he been in Congress 
he could have discussed, with credit to himself and profit 
to the country, the tariflf or any other revenue question, 
or public measure, with Tucker, or Randall, or Sherman, 
or Beck. 

In his home he was the Christian patriarch, ruling and 
reigning with love and intelligence. He was a pattern of a 
Christian husband and father. He regarded the hearth-stone 
as the corner-stone of the commonwealth. Others besides his 
immediate family often enjoyed his home. He was " given to 
hospitality." He greatly enjoyed the presence of a few 
friends at his table, which never groaned with a profusion of 
viands, but displayed frugality and plenty, dispensed with a 
hearty and unostentatious generosity. 

He enjoyed his friends. But, oh ! how his friends enjoyed him. 
The little company would retire to his study, (he was not much 
of a parlor entertainer,) and there around the cheerful fire 
draw him out in conversation. It was interesting to see hira 
smoke his pipe, which he did most awkwardly. It was edify- 
ing and interesting to hear his words, which were well-chosen 
and flowed freely. He never gave his views upon subjects 
with which he was not familiar. On these, he would seek the 
views of others. On a subject which he had mastered, he 
would go to the very bottom roots, however far below the 
surface — give us the trunk, then the branches, then the 
leaves, and the blossoms and the fruit. If the wit and wisdom 
of Dr. Brown given to such friends on such occasions, could 



HIS CHA.EACTEE. 327 

have been published, we should have a book superior to that 
of Sydney Smith. 

His library was not large, but was well selected, and the 
books inside and outside showed that they had been handled 
and read. He was once asked how it was that he had so 
small a library. He replied, "I never buy books to ornament 
the shelves, and I have more books now than I can read with 
profit to myself or benefit to others. The truth is, that more 
than half of the books that are published ought to be burned. 
They are either useless or hurtful ; and yet if men would read 
even half the books they have they would be wiser if not 
better men." 

Dr. Brown was a Free Mason, and was not ashamed of it. 
He was once asked by a distinguished DD. of his Church — 
" Brown, how is it that a man of your good sense can belong 
to the Masons ? " He answered, " Doctor, the feelings of my 
heart prompt me to unite with any organization of my fellow- 
men which has for its object the amelioration of human 
suflTering, the cultivation of fraternity among the human 
race, the elevation of human character, and which teaches 

and practices lessons of charity." 

Thomas J. Evans. 

Richmond, Va., March 4, 1886. 

In reckoning the work wrought by Dr. Brown, 
we cannot call to our aid any statistical record 
which he ever kept. He never kept a diary, and 
rarely furnished for the press any record of his 
work. How many sermons he preached^ how 



328 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

many souls were led to Christ by his ministrations, 
how many saints w^ere inspired with loftier pur- 
poses, how many ministers were quickened by 
contact with him, in all the powers of their being, 
how many youthful minds were kindled into noble 
aspirations, and how many scholarly men were 
cheered in their studies by the force of his exam- 
ple — these are questions which it would be vain 
to attempt to answer. 

Dr. Brown was not a pushing, noisy man. He 
did his part restfully, and not under the whip of 
popular applause. In estimating his contribution 
to the improvement of his race, we must look 
mainly to his character. He set in motion influ- 
ences which, while silent, were potent and undy- 
ing. If it is impossible to estimate v/ith statistical 
accuracy the actual amount of work which he 
performed, it is yet more impossible to calculate 
the influences which silently flowed from his 
strong and well-rounded life. He wrought on the 
character of his fellow-men with a power, so gentle 
and silent that not even those who felt it knew 
its full worth. He always seemed to be uncon- 
scious of his own strength. He retired from the 
most thrilling performances of his public life 
seemingly insensible to the impression he had 
produced on others ; and that too while they were 



HIS CHARACTER. 329 

completely overmastered by his power. If lie 
was oblivious of his strength at his greatest 
moments, it is easy to believe that he was utterly 
forgetful of those gracious influences which went 
out from him like convection currents from a 
heated body. He Avas not a popular leader. In 
public enterpriseSj he rarely took a conspicuous 
part. 

He was too sensitive to endure the clash of 
high debate, and was wanting in that art which 
is so often found among men ambitious to lead. 
His strength was in his simplicity and honesty of 
nature. Like a holy Magnet he attracted to 
himself the best elements of the community in 
which he lived, and breathed upon them his own 
excellent spirit. Weak men drew near to him 
because they instinctively felt that he could love 
them. He had so much of the Saviour's kindli- 
ness of temper and openness of manner that they 
believed in him with a sort of transforming faith. 
Bad men were afraid of him, they knew that in 
him they could find no sympathy with their evil 
ways. And so it came to pass that his whole life 
was a sermon — inspiring the good, pouring oil 
into wounded hearts, and giving rebuke to sin. 

What he did was well done. He never slighted 
the smallest task. Even with ambition as his 



330 LIFE OF A, B. BKOWN, DD. LLD. 

incentive, he always struck high, but with the 
love of Christ as his constraining force, he always 
did his work with thorough fidelity. 

He made the most of himself, and did his best 
for Christ. In that small circle of God's faithful 
ones he had a place. For two scores of years he 
stood at his post with quivering nerve and weary 
limb, waiting for his Lord's coming. When at last 
the King's chariot suddenly appeared, he entered 
it with joy, and went up to his crown. 



LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 331 



SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE BAPTIST 
GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIA, 

At Culpeper, on June 1, 1876. 



The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few ; pray ye, 
therefore, the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into 
his vineyard. — Ilatt. ix. 37, 38. 

Leaving to the more vigorous and tlie more adventurous, 
heights inviting rather to the tourist than to the husbandman, 
I limit myself to-day to the humbler field of Christian thought, 
which has been longest the scene of fertilizing culture. This 
field still promises far the most abundant and the most useful 
products. I should, in vain, solicit the aid of the Graces in 
my unambitious task. Genius could, indeed, win them from 
their favorite haunts in woods and mountains to attend and 
smile upon the useful. For Virgil, after sporting with them 
awhile in their resorts, persuaded them to follow him to the 
theatre of humble toil, and to bestow on the tillage of lands, 
the tendance of flocks, and the rearing of bees, an elegance 
unrivalled in ancient literature. And the Christian utilities 
have often furnished them not only an infinitely worthier, but 
a not less happy employment. Many precious Christian 
Georgics, unsurpassed models of reason and sentiment, of 
diction and rhythm, have shown every excellence of composi- 
tion to be equally at home amid the very commonplaces and 
simplicities of the faith. And as I go into my labor, uucheered 



332 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

by the company of the Graces, I cannot allege, in apology for 
their unkindness to the workman, that they disdain the work. 

Our passage follows as a change — not a mixture — of figures 
on a striking delineation by the great painter of the chosen 
race as a flock in part misled, in part abandoned by incom- 
petent and unfaithful shepherds, scattered and torn and 
famishing. This vivid and touching picture did not ade- 
quately represent that aspect of His work which was then 
most deeply moving the Saviour's heart ; its pressing, imperi- 
ous urgency. The hour on which the Son of God had been 
at least four thousand years converging all the arrangements 
of Providence was at hand. The zeal of the Lord's house, 
which had been burning in the bosom of the Son of Mary 
with steadily increasing glow from its repression or deferment 
in his twelfth year, was now at its full intensity. His Father's 
business was ripe, ready, clamorous. And the richest of all 
imaginations, which certainly manifested its superiority over 
every other imagination in didactic precision even more than 
in grandeur, painted it as a white harvest waving its invitations 
to the sickle. By this image, the Saviour, it would seem, is 
seeking to impress upon his followers — aye, and upon himself, 
immediate, unremitting, intense labor for the present conver- 
sion of souls; in other words, the main features of the "now" 
plan. Harvest, less than sowing, or tilling, or anything else, 
admits of no delay. Harvest, beyond anything else, strains the 
energies of the laborer to highest tension. The life-long har- 
vester may not indeed find it possible, or even desirable, to 
maintain one unvarying pitch of utmost effort. But how high,- 
my soul, is the tone of ordinary endeavor demanded by this 
figure of severe and unremitting toil ! 

The labor must be strenuous, for the work is of waiting:, 
crying, readiness. The world is not a wilderness to be cleared, 
not a fallow, not a plantation, but a harvest. Every human 



SERMON BEFOEE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 333 

being on earth, of rational years, is to be reached as soon as 
possible, and without preliminary, by the herald of the cross. 
Every human heart should be summoned and assaulted — not 
besieged — with the claims of the gospel. It is perilous to 
abandon the child to habits of cold indifference or active 
resistance to Christianity till the schoolmaster prepares him 
for an intelligent and (vain hope!) dispassionate investigation 
of all the subtleties of the Athanasian creed. It is cruel to 
bid the frontier village wait for the missionary till the chaotic 
elements of its society stratify — till law and order spread their 
shield over him — and till Satan sweeps and garnishes and 
fortifies. It is folly and semi-infidelity to spend your strength 
in building up for the savage idolater a conscience that shall 
tremble at the full indictment of the law, and an intelligence 
that shall grapple with all the refinements of apologies for the 
faith designed for polished and fastidious infidels. But how 
much worse is it to neglect him altogether ? It is as well a 
violation of sound reason as a recreancy to Christ to wait for 
heathen systems to die out, whereof they exhibit no very 
encouraging symptoms, that you may embrace their period of 
decay as a favorable time for the introduction of the gospel, 
when it is evident that no time is less favorable to the recep- 
tion of the truth than that season of indifference or despair 
which ensues on the disintegration of a national religion. 
Preparatory work will, in the providence of God, be done ; 
but work done to-day, with an eye single to the one great end, 
is the only legitimate preparation for to-morrow. And all 
waiting to be pioneered by science, or towed along by com- 
merce —all pusillanimous hovering on the rear of conquest- 
all pile-driving to lay a foundation for the temple of God, is 
exploded by the single w^ord harvest. 

Earnest, immediate work, directly expended on human 
souls, is the only suggestion I find in the figure. A succession 



334 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

of sketches from the hand of the Great Des'gner presents 
other aspects of Christian labor, which it would be worse than 
wasted ingenuity and patience to force upon this passage. It 
may not, however, be superfluous to observe that the work 
couched in this imagery exerts far more of cultural and dis- 
ciplinary influence, both on the laborer and on the field, than 
is even glanced at in the illustration itself. Labor for the 
immediate conversion of souls is not the one single and sufli- 
cient gymnastic of the Christian worker, but it is the exercise 
most extensively and most highly conducive to spiritual devel- 
opment. The gospel, as preached to sinners, is by no means 
the exclusive aliment of the growing saint, but it is a diet con- 
taining all the elements of life, and, as is witnessed in all 
genuine revivals, is ever appetizing and ever nutritious. It 
furnishes society no forms of government, but materials better 
than all forms, at home with any form which does not repress 
it, and quietly tending to crystallize or rather to grow into the 
best forms. Oh, then, with the sharpest sickles we can com- 
mand, but Avith no needless loitering about grindstones or 
plying of paddles, with the very minimum of shadings and 
vacations that brain and muscle will tolerate, with no aflecta- 
tion of graceful strokes — for who but the giants can be grace- 
ful in the performance of plain, hard work ? — let us move 
forward in the field white to the harvest. 

But is the demand for evangelistic eflbrt clamorous now as 
when the Saviour uttered the words of our passage? The field 
here had in immediate view is Palestine, if not only Galilee ; 
but this representation, like others constructed with divine 
skill, solicits reference to a wider sphere. The great commis- 
sion expressly points to the wider sphere, and enjoins the 
precise kind of eflbrt already indicated. The demand of the 
larger field is certainly as real, it is probably as intense, as 
that of the section to which attention is here directed. Christ 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 335 

had as yet no official laborers to aid him, the statement in our 
passage being the preamble to the resolution to send forth the 
apostles. But the whole body of his disciples whom he called 
laborers, and called to be laborersj-was working with the ac- 
tivity of vital, nascent leaven ; or, to speak in accordance with 
the figure here commended to us, every disciple was busy reap- 
hooking the corners of the fi<-ld, or gleaning the straggling 
heads of grain which escaped the majestic sweep of the Great 
Toiler's scythe. But I will discount all labor save that of 
Jesus only. If he had been the only preacher, it is doubtful 
whether the evangelization of Galilee, to say nothing of its 
immeasurable superiority in kind, has in extent and degree, 
ever been equalled. Christ found his nation in the very hush 
and gaze of eagerest expectancy. He was interviewed by 
numberless caterers for the public hunger, and his every utter- 
ance was seized and circulated as the most sensational news. 
His march was thronged, blockaded, waylaid by anxious list- 
eners. His teachings were so strikingly original, so wide apart 
from what man ever spake, so sharply and distinctly pic- 
turesque, so stinging to the conscience, and yet so grateful to 
the heart, that every memory became their record, and every 
hearer could render them with the accuracy of a stenographic 
reporter. Surely, then, we are entitled to appropriate to the 
present field, with great if not increased emphasis, the language 
of our passage : The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labor- 
ers are few. Pardon the offence against homiletic symmetry 
in this too protracted explanation and vindication of the 
Master's imagery, and follow me in further considering the 
subject which he brings before us as it seems naturally to dis- 
tribute itself into three divisions, viz : the vast dimensions of 
the harvest field, the frightful inadequacy of the laboring 
force, and the divinely indicated source of supply. 

I. The population of the earth is not in itself immeasurable. 



336 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

Figures may at some day state it with approximate accuracy. 
But the imagination will never conceive it with full vividness, 
and the heart will never adequately respond to its peril, which 
will continue to haffle arithmetic. Perhaps the field rather 
gains than loses in impressiveness on imagination and heart 
by its stubborn refusal so far to submit to accurate measure- 
ment. The indefinitely vast is universally recognized as 
the chief element of the sublime. The grandest master of 
rhythmic eloquence would have disgusted or amused where he 
has profoundly awed, if he had subjected the vague hugeness 
of Satan's figure to the tailor's tape, or had substituted for a 
wilderness of burning marl, stretching ''nine times the space 
that parted day from night to mortal men," the definite reve- 
lations of the surveyor's chain. This element of grandeur 
will, however, always remain to our subject; for if definite 
statement ever be reached, overwhelming indefiniteness in its 
conception will still continue. Immensely the larger part of 
the bewildering array will be totally lost to heart and fancy. 
Commodore Maury, an authority pre-eminent for ability and 
painstaking accuracy, states the population of the globe at 
1,350,000,000. Johnson, the publisher of the mammoth atlas, 
who certainly had access to able and careful authorities, 
reduces the estimate to — he is not particular to say what — 
between 1,000,000,000 — that is ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand ten times repeated — and 1,200,000,000. Now Maury, 
the leader of mankind in his department of science, was an 
humble and devout Christian, and an ardent friend of missions. 
And it is perfectly safe to say that, if he had felt compelled 
to reduce his estimate to the lower number, neither his prayers 
nor his pecuniary contributions for the conversion of the 
world would have been lessened. And that, if Johnson was 
indififerent to the spiritual interests of mankind, the assurance 
that he ought to have added from 150,000,000 to 350,000,000 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 337 

to his enumeration would not even have tended to change his 
indifference into zeal. Nothing strikes and appals me more 
in the uncompassable proportions of these amazing statistics 
than that the population of twenty-five New Yorks or five 
hundred Richmonds, with an aggregate death rate of some 
ten thousand a week, is summarily dismissed, as if its reten- 
tion would savor of finical minuteness amid so overwhelming 
round numbers. 

I call these numbers overwhelming. Ah ! the misfortune 
from the necessity of their nature is, that they so little stir and 
overwhelm. The most prodigious of them are pronounced 
with the tithe of a single breath, and contract themselves into 
a linear inch or two on the printed page. They coalesce, they 
run into each other like the segments of a steamboat table, or 
like the sections of an extensible fishing rod, each section 
except the first and last nesting, telescoping into another of 
ten times its magnitude. To fold them into portable shape, 
how easy ! Yet we pass over them in their condensed form 
with much less impression than we would dash across a prairie 
on a lightning train. To expand them for full impression on 
sense or imagination is a feat that, in the case of large num- 
bers, presents almost or altogether insuperable difiiculty. The 
grandeur of the Centennial Exhibition is not half so difiicult 
to grasp. If, disregarding the clear, varied and permanent 
impressions which weeks of earnest scrutiny alone could give, 
you would be content with a striking idea of its mere vastness 
and magnificence, this you might gain in a comparatively 
short time. Ydu cannot in a short time familiarize your con- 
ceptions and your emotions with one billion three hundred and 
fifty millions of immortal souls. The imagination demands 
time, and, like the reason of the philosopher, dealing with the 
infinity of God, the more it is exerted, the more time it will 
demand. The school- boy will go trippingly through his tril- 



338 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

lioDs and quadrillions, and think he knows all about them. 
But an acute metaphysician tells us that five is as large a 
number as we can grasp by direct intuition, and that larger 
numbers are distinctly conceived by piecing together parcels 
of this or a smaller dimension. And an able writer suggests 
that the one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six feet 
which measure the front of the main Centennial building, can 
only be realized by comparing them with some nearly equal 
known space, or marking them on the ground If you would 
realize our Avork-field, since you cannot fix it before you on 
actual vision, as Christ did the scattered sheep of his flock» 
you must laboriously, and, with meagre success, spread it 
before your imaginations. Number, by long habit, is most 
easily conceived in association with the measures of space. 
Then imagine the inhabitants of the world brought together. 
Twelve hundred times the area of the Centennial grounds, 
four times the extent of the original District of Columbia, 
were every square inch of it available, would afibrd them only 
scant and thronged standing room. Fancy them— delightful 
dream ! — all assembled to hear the word of God. The largest 
county in your State would scarcely contain the houses in 
which more than one million of preachers should address each 
more than one thousand hearers of age to attend to the gospel. 
Still these millions are running into each other, and the mind 
glides over them without adhesion with far more than the 
facility with which the cheated eye sweeps across the deceptive 
face of unbroken waters. Yet they exhibit every diversity to 
awaken our interest and assist our calculations. God marshals 
them before us clothed in a fadeless livery, recognized at a 
glance by all who are not perversely color-blind. And they, 
themselves, indefinitely variegate the procession by their own 
peculiar titles to recognition in an endless diflference of laws 
and governments, of languages, histories and traditions, of 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 339 

religioDs and ceremonies, of creeds and opinions, of manners 
and customs, of diet and dress. Wheel the grand muster of 
nations through every evolution that fancy can suggest, the 
scene will grow before you. But especially study the attitude 
of the world to enlightenment and Christianity. Assemble 
the nations, diversified as before, and arrange them in ascend- 
ing ranks according to civilization. Place lowest eighty mil- 
lions of degraded savages, scarcely above the beasts and reptiles 
they worship. Place next one hundred and twenty millions 
of fierce and godless nomads madly surging against eacb other, 
and against civilization, in deadly struggle for land and pas- 
turage. Put still higher some eight hundred millions of half- 
civilized human beings, most of them in abjectest poverty and 
misery, groaning under iron despotisms of mind and body 
which have been growing stronger and harsher for from 
twenty to forty centuries. Surmount the array with civilized 
men. Now a division of most painful interest is to be made. 
A line, inclusive of nearly all the highest level, exclusive of 
nearly all the lowest, but jagged and eccentric as the light- 
ning's path, shall run through the scene, and separate what, 
with utmost license of language and in the very extravagance 
of charity, we call Christian nations from unvaried and unmit- 
igated heathendom. This line reveals a proportion startling 
to the extent of dismay. Three-fourths of the human famJly 
are still, in this last quarter of the nineteenth century, in utter 
and ruinous ignorance of the saving truth ! 

With much of sorrow and with something, I trust, of 
remorse for our former "inhumanity to man" in his greatest 
need, we dismiss our imaginary assembly, and remand to their 
respective positions on the earth's surface the millions, most of 
them starving for lack of the bread of life. Now geographical 
magnitudes scarcely less prodigious, and much more appalling, 
confront us. Weeks and months of difficult and often perilous 



340 LIFE OF A. B. BEOWN, DD. LLD. 

journey await us as we set out in any direction from our centre 
in search of the more distant and the more hopeless. And 
then for months spent in reaching their abodes, we have years 
to spend in reaching the understandings, the consciences and 
the hearts of even a few. Ah ! I have not moved you with 
numbers. I was fearing it. I might have known it. The 
four hundred millions of China, persistently and skilfully 
paraded in their tear-compelling plight before Christendom, 
have been scarcely equal contestants for sympathy and aid 
with the few thousands of the Sandwich Islands. And this 
surely has not been because numbering more, the Chinese 
have, in the scales of spiritual worth and promise, weighed less. 
Despairing of the attempt to expand reason and fancy and 
heart to the dimensions of these wide-stretching and bewilder- 
ing numerals, let us try another course. Let us stand face to 
face with a single one of their constituent units. And though 
it presents itself cased in rags, crushed and dwarfed under 
despotism, and all crimsoned with sin, we feel irresistibly 
impelled to uncover before it. A soul ! It is the image, 
though the fearfully marred and distorted image of God. A 
soul ! It is the mirror, if not indeed the constituent of all 
other grandeurs ; and, save God, grander than all it mirrors. 
It is varied and wide as the earth, and deep as the unfathom- 
able sea. The certain possessor of immortality, it is the prob- 
able heir of a constantly and eternally accelerating growth. 
And, oh, deepest dread ! oh, highest hope ! It shall continue 
forever to sting itself into racking spasms of keenest remorse, 
or to thrill under the ever-brightening vision of God. The 
sons of God shouted for joy when first the material universe, 
touched into harmony by its great Creator, poured upon their 
ears its full- voiced anthem. With still higher rapture do they 
shake the upper welkin when one sinner repenteth. But only 
the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, the infinitely loving 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 341 

Father of spirits, feels an adequate joy when a single dead 
soul is made alive and a single lost soul is found. 

From this point of view, my brethren, look out on your 
work, so dizzying in the multitude, so staggering in the magni- 
tude of its objects. And remember that while you look, death 
is reaping and hell is garnering. Men are lost, and lost to 
deep and eternal perdition, without the gospel. Banish from 
your minds that fond but wretched delusion, so paralyzing to 
the zeal of the preacher, so drugged with false and fatal secu- 
rity to the hearer, that man is saved by anything which he 
really believes. Men may worship after the manner which 
some call honesty and sincerity ; their way may seem to them 
right; but unless it be God's chosen way, their end is death, 
though they be as sincere as the chief of sinners when he per- 
secuted the church of Christ. Hero -worshippers may laud 
and magnify the brilliant spectacle of conspicuous zeal, whether 
it be salutary or destructive, as boys gaze with delighted won- 
der on a mighty conflagration, whether it burns out a jungle 
or burns down a city ; but no zeal shall win the approval of 
the universal Judge, except zeal according to the knowledge 
of saving truth. The Saviour did indeed say to a certain 
individual, "According to thy faith, so be it unto thee." But 
that faith was perfectly right in object, and astonishing even 
to himself in degree. Latitudinarians strangely and to their 
own hurt wrest this Scripture, when they pervert it into a 
proposition which stultifies the Bedeemer's purpose of living 
and dying to be the object of a faith unto salvation. 

Hesitate not, in the discharge of your duty to Christ, to 
give the world that without which there is no salvation, from 
fear of a possible aggravation of its guilt. In preaching the 
gospel we do not impose, we only present a great and perilous 
responsibility. In withholding it, we clearly assume responsi- 
bility for the blood of souls. How strange that men, who 



342 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

know that every new opportunity and blessing is burdened 
with new obligations, should shrink from proffering the greatest 
good, lest it be possibly converted into a curse. But we can- 
not, in obedience to a craven and cruel fear, which would 
brand every blessing as a snare, consent that our children and 
our country shall sink into savagery ; and we will not, in dis- 
obedience to the gracious Master, deny to the perishing mil- 
lions of earth the indispensable cup of salvation lest they 
madly dash it from their lips. 

II. I pass to the second division — the inadequacy of the 
supply of gospel laborers. This may be the more briefly dis- 
patched as having been largely implied in the preceding view. 
If we discount from the three hundred and fifty millions of 
nominal Christians the millions of the superstitious who have 
no knowledge of salvation, the infidels who have no belief in 
it, the grossly criminal and vicious who have no hope of it, 
the tens of millions of the frivolous and worldly who have no 
care for it, the array would shrink like Gideon's army when 
sifted by the Almighty. There need be no hesitation in saying 
the number of earnest Christian workers, viewed in comparison 
with the immense field, before which our imaginations and 
hearts have just now sunk prostrate and discouraged, is alarm- 
ingly small ; yea, but for the promise of the ever-continued 
support of Him in whose might one shall chase a thousand, it 
would be ludicrously inadequate. 

We want earnest preachers of the gospel, wholly devoted 
to their work — and we want them in multitudes — men whose 
enthusiasm for their mission, and whose facility in their task, 
shall make preaching a luxury — men to whom, in the seasons 
and aspects of labor which cannot be a delight, preaching 
shall be a controlling duty — men whose thorough equipment 
for their sacred ofiice shall, with the blessing of heaven, make 
preaching a grand success — men who, laboring exclusively 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 343 

for the spiritual good of their race, shall produce a larger and 
better effect on the harmony, the purity, the culture, and, 
finally, the material interests of society, than any other class 
of agents. Such men will, in their official relations, abjure 
politics, only demanding of statesmen, as our Baptist fathers 
did, full liberty of conscience for all. Thank God, I stand 
to-day freely enlarged on the very site of the Culpeper prison, 
from which, a little more than one hundred years ago, Ireland, 
looking out on the blue hills to the north and the wilderness 
on the south, put up this only petition to civil government : 

"On the mountains let me labor, 
In the desert let me tell 
How He died, the matchless Saviour, 
To redeem the world from hell." 

I repeat, we need a great increase of ministers, even for this 
country and this State. We do indeed want a great increase 
of the ability and zeal of the Christian ministry of our coun- 
try — confessedly respectable as that ministry now is. But we 
should still greatly need more preachers. We do not properly 
sustain those we have. But preaching must stimulate to the 
support of the present ministry, and to a demand for an in- 
creased ministerial force. In this sense, John Kerr's remark 
is certainly true, that the best preparation for preaching is 
preaching. I cannot enlarge on this point. I say, on thorough 
conviction and with a full heart, that there is great lack of 
the preached word in our beloved Commonwealth ; that I do 
know our monthly preaching can never fully indoctrinate our 
people; and that, in a few miles of our country churches, 
are neighborhoods deplorably in want of the gospel. 

Preaching is teaching. If we would teach, we must have 
smaller classes of pupils, and get into closer, freer, more fre- 
quent contact with them. The propagation of the gospel is, 
in some respects, like the propagation of light by radiation. 



344 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

It is more like the diffusion of heat by convections — the 
spreading of fermentation by contact. 

We want not laboring preachers alone. Christ demands 
the co-operation of the whole Christian body. His few labor- 
ers at the date of the pronunciation of our passage were all 
unofficial men and women. Whatever may be the doubt con- 
cerning an apostolic succession, there can be no doubt of a 
continuity of the laity, as it is called, or an unbroken succes- 
sion of believing men and women. If there is a controversy 
about rank and precedence between this continuous body and 
lordly prelates, the laity may, Avithout breach of modesty, 
allege, "Before apostles were we are!" Preceding the apostles 
in itinerant labors of evangelization on the first persecution — 
summoning Peter before their tribunal to render account of 
the first preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles — concurring 
with the apostles in what is falsely called the first general 
council at Jerusalem, they may claiui that it is now no humil- 
iation to the tallest of the clergy to bow to the majesty of the 
people. The great teaching force of this body, when earnestly 
and consciously exerted, and the greater unconscious influence 
of their active piety in their churches and in their business, 
are simply incalculable. I have already deplored the com- 
parative inefficacy of attacks on sin at long range. The 
highest effect results from the grapple of man with man. And 
just here is the advantage and the superiority of the people 
with what may be disparagingly called their small arms. The 
world will not be converted till there is a great increase of 
this laboring force in all lands. But what crying need of 
preachers before this high vantage ground shall be reached ? 

I may select from the bewildering and saddening number of 
places where spiritual laborers are deplorably scarce, a few 
which we are urged to supply by the highest and dearest 
immediate interests, or by solemn assumption and committal. 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 345 

The Chinese are streaming into the Western and South-western 
portions of our country in currents of annually increasing 
volume. Laborers not a few are needed to convert these por- 
tentous barbaric waves into an overflow, freighted with spiritual 
fertility. Sanctified patriotism would further counsel the 
copious impregnation of the foreign source of so perilous a 
deluge with the salt of truest conservatism. Here our most 
precious secular interests unite with distinct committal and 
solemn pledge to demand a large re-enforcement of the Chinese 
mission, at present so disproportionate to the work as to move 
the heathen to derision, and Christendom to humiliation and 
mourning. Within our midst are millions of half-civilized 
Africans. Shall we pause till we decide whether Northern or 
Southern Christians are most able or most bound to minister 
to their spiritual needs, and stand upon the order of our going 
to them, till a ground-swell of ignorance, sensuality, agrarian- 
ism, superstition and fanaticism shall wreck our entire Christian 
civilization? Interest and duty combine to urge the sendiug 
of laborers to the children of Africa in this country. Duty, 
philanthropy, and in the case of many of us, solemn engage- 
ment, concur to demand the support and re- enforcement of 
David and others on the continent of Africa for the preaching 
of the gospel to a people that, notwithstanding their deep 
degradation, receive it with more readiness than any other 
people under heaven. The laborers are very few who are 
prepared to meet the hordes of Catholics that are coming to 
this country, and in yearly increasing numbers to this State. 
Patriotism appeals to us here again. But when we look 
towards Italy, how many considerations impel us to heed its 
cry for the pure gospel. More than half of the law that con- 
trols us, the history that guides us, the literature that is our 
delight and our unapproached model, is derived from that 
classic land. And the Italians of to-day are in their possibil- 



346 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

ities greater than the Romans when they marched to the con- 
quest of the world. The Italians, with their infusion of Gothic 
blood, are in endowments what the Greeks were in the past. 
They are a people beyond all others beautiful in person and 
versatile in genius ; a people beggared by the most splendid 
church establishment of the world ; a people many of whom 
are maddened into assassination and brigandage by the most 
grinding of despotisms ; a people whose proverbial fraud and 
dissimulation are not excused certainly, but greatly palliated, 
by a telegraphic espionage, whose wires all converge in the 
Vatican, and by the auscultation of the secret throbbings of 
their hearts in the confessional. Among this people of noblest 
gifts and possibilities is the centre of the great ramifying can- 
cer on the body of Christianity. How. few are engaged in its 
extirpation ! Here is the finest strategic point of so-called 
Christendom, the citadel of the Papacy. With what interest 
do we watch the little forlorn hope as with sublime daring 
they thunder their defiance at its gates ! Ah, let us cultivate 
this interest. Few of us, my brethren, are susceptible of being 
greatly stirred by a direct contemplation of the vastly extended 
harvest field. We are more likely to catch the contagion of 
zeal from sympathy v/ith those loftier spirits that see, and those 
deeper and tenderer natures that feel, the necessities of man. 
Most of us who have heard that exquisitely graceful tribute 
to Dr. Tupper's recent articles on missions, but not more 
graceful than just, have felt first a greater sympathy with the 
workers, and then a deeper interest in the work. I confess, 
my interest in the Chinese has been greatly increased since 
a former pupil of mine, the heroic, the enthusiastic Lottie 
Moon, has consecrated her pre-eminent aptitude for the lan- 
guages to the blessed ofiice of announcing to the sorrowing 
Marys and Marthas of China, the Master who is come and 
calleth for them. And my high and warm personal regard 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 347 

for that noble type of the Christian man, Geo. B. Taylor, who 
has left his Virginia brethren scarcely his equal in talents and 
acquirements, in the vigor, the accuracy and the facility of 
his pen, in the earnestness of his piety, and the depth of his 
devotion to friends, gives me higher concern for that grand 
object which appears above every other to concern him. We 
love heaven itself better, because friends and kindred are 
triumphant there. Shall we not love the mission fields more 
because there our friends are earning their crowns? And 
shall we not, must we not, if we are real Christians, rise up to 
sympathy with Christ who tasted death for every man, and 
descend with Him to sympathy for every son of Adam for 
whom He died ? 

III. Whence must come the supply of the fearful destitu- 
tion of laborers in the world-wide harvest field ? It is easy to 
delude ourselves into reliance on the great economic principle 
of the spontaneous tendency to the equation of supply and 
demand. The dominion of this principle is limited to the 
spheres of imperious material needs, or active natural and 
cultured desires. But even in these spheres, the political 
economist will tell us that not simple desire, but ability to pay 
for its object, constitutes real and effective demand. Where 
scarcity of bread prevails, and money (or its equivalent) is at 
command, price ascends and waves its invitation to a wider 
circle of supply ; where famine rages, the effective demand 
still existing, price mounts by long arid rapid strides to the 
mast-head, and unfurls the flag of distress to a still more 
distant horizon. Supply moves to the scene of remote anxietv 
or urgent suffering in gentler undulations, or in higher climbing 
billows, according to the violence of the disturbing causes, and 
then ebbs away after more than meeting the demand. Ah, 
me ! little or nothing of this takes place in regard to man's 
great intellectual and spiritual wants. Call man, if you 



348 LIFE OF A. B. BUOWN, DD. LLD. 

please, an inquisitive being. In his deepest ignorance his 
quest of knowledge is capricious, irregular, almost profitless. 
The ignorant masses will not be enlightened till truth is 
gently urged upon their feeble and blinking vision, by a 
benevolence which is above them, and which graciously con- 
descends to them. Man, if you please, is a religious animal. 
But he is a sinful being, and will not come to the light where 
it shines upon him, lest his deeds should be reproved. In the 
case of the heathen, it must be manifested to them who seek 
it not. Many of the heathen Indians on our Western frontier, 
and all the ruling elements in Japan, seek after our secular 
knowledge. They nauseate our religion, its true support. 

Some influences auxiliary to direct effort for the diffusion 
of knowledge and home evangelization. A man cannot be a 
Christian at all without exerting some unconscious, uninten- 
tional Christian influence on the unconverted around him. 
Christians of a low type of Christianity, and even infidels, will 
somewhat help to sustain the preaching of the gospel in their 
own country, because they believe it will conduce to their 
own prosperity in advancing the general good, because their 
persons and property will be safer, and their taxation for the 
repression of crime and the relief of beggary will be lightened. 

But these aids will not help in foreign evangelization. 
Foreign missions, in their success, do powerfully and favorably 
react on the material prosperity of Christian nations. But 
the planter, the manufacturer and the merchant, will not 
invest with reference to gains apparently so remote. Their 
plan, whatever ours may be, is emphatically the "now" plan. 
The chief reliance everywhere, the sole reliance for most of 
the field, is the highest and purest Christian benevolence, 
kindled first from heaven, and reinforced continually in 
answer to earnest prayer. The salvation of the world comes 
not from the universal spread of primary education. I hail 



SERMON BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 349 

with deliglit the increase of secular knowledge. It is a possi- 
bility, yet a perilous possibility of good. It is a great instru- 
ment which we must hasten to utilize for good, and to save 
from perversion. General education is no substitute for the 
gospel. If we would preserve the healthy balance of all the 
powers of a people, the more education we have, the more and 
not the less we need the earnest, effective and deeply spiritual 
Sabbath-school, pulpit and press. Shall we look to the higher 
education ? It is invaluable for the full exposition of divine 
truth, and for the thorough intelligence of that exposition. 
But the higher education more needs Christianity than Chris- 
tianity needs it. The ancient classical languages with all their 
freightage of history, philosophy and poetry, constituting 
them the noblest instruments of culture, and the great bulwark 
of consecration, would, probably, be abandoned to utter neglect 
but for the interest which the higher Christian thinkers take 
in them. The relation of Christianity to our higher culture is 
even still more direct. The main current of modern scepticism 
is materialistic to the denial of the immortality of the soul. 
Let it gain ascendency in the higher departments of educa- 
tion, and the human mind, and its sublime philosophy, become 
a matter of anatomy and chemistry. The soul will grow to 
be too mean a thing for severe and serious discipline ; and 
science, for a while, patronized as an engineer for the con- 
struction of roads and machines, will finally die of starvation 
in the house of its false friends. The higher education, then, 
far from dispensing with Christian laborers, is one of the many 
applicants for their increase in number and effectiveness. 
Theological schools will do much to supply the demand for 
laborers. But they need the highest order of God-given 
material on which to operate. Then, brethren, we are shut 
up to prayer as our only recourse. The most candid of the 
rejecters of revelation tell us, on purely rational grounds, that 



350 LIFE OF A. B. BROWN, DD. LLD. 

prayer is the irrepressible instinct, the inevitable necessity of 
a soul, awake to a great need, and alive to the existence of an 
infinitely wise and loving personal God. We have reached a 
point where philosophy recognizes the necessity, and revela- 
tion imposes the duty of prayer. Andrew Fuller used to say — 
perhaps, with an excess of self- depreciation — that he had little 
religion or devoutness that was not extorted by distress. 
Doubtless, he had more of them in that state. Thank God, 
that Andrew Fuller and Carey and their brethren, became 
sorely distressed about India, and cried to the Lord in its 
behalf. Great blessings seem to have been bestowed in 
answer to those prayers. Why should we doubt that He will 
answer prayer ? To say that He will not be affected by any- 
thing we do, is to say that He will neither reward nor punish 
human conduct. If it must be admitted that He regards 
anything of our state, w^hat will He be so likely to regard as 
the heart's desire of His children ? Surely, every right prayer 
is the reflection of the Spirit from the human soul. Nature 
mirrors back on God His image ; devout spirits echo back 
His voice. But they have never sent back the full response. 
It is just here that advocates of the simple passivity of the 
human soul under divine influence err in theory, and all the 
Christian world has erred in practice. Christian hearts have 
not fully answered the divine touch, else the God who has 
promised to hear prayer would long since have sent forth the 
needed supply. He has foreknown from eternity our prayers, 
and has made arrangements, and pledge to answer every right 
and enjoyed prayer, without the slightest swerving of the laws, 
either of spirit or of matter. 

I conclude wdth two assumptions implied in our prayer : 
1st. The Lord's harvest is our field, else to ask for laborers 
would be an impertinence. The field is doubly ours. All 
human beings are our brethren. The unity of the human race 



SERMON BEFOEE THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 351 

which is abundantly estahlished by sober and impartial 
science, is not, indeed, the foundation, but the necessary con- 
dition of the whole remedial scheme. Then the work has been 
committed to us. Faith is to come by hearing the word of 
God from the lips of men. 

2d. We undertake to act in the line of our petitions. 
Prayer is desire intensified by its entertainment and expres- 
sion. To pray, and not to act in the direction of our prayers, 
would be, if it were not an impossibility, an absurdity and 
inconsistency. If we pray we must act in response to our 
prayers. Infidelity will scoffingly say, that this will be the 
only answer they will receive, just as it mocks at trusting in 
God on the day of battle, and believes only in keeping the 
powder dry; we have a totally different conviction. God 
moves ; prayer intensifies and insures action. Pray, believing 
that prayer acts on God, as well as reacts on yourselves. 
When there shall be much of this kind of prayer, the king- 
dom of God shall come—" His will be done on earth as in 
heaven." 



THE END. 



^-EB 33 1905 



e^r 



